Telecoms operators have welcomed the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa's (ICASA's) latest move towards licensing certain radio frequency spectrum bands.
ICASA yesterday announced it had published a discussion document to move towards the licensing of E-Band (71 - 76GHz + 81 - 86GHz) and V-Band (57 - 66GHz) radio frequency.
Telkom and MTN have welcomed the discussion paper, with Telkom saying the use of the E-Band and V-Band spectrum is "a key element in network provisioning going forward". MTN says the document is "in line with MTN's long-standing advocacy of the benefits of spectrum".
"MTN has done an extensive series of pilots of these bands and the results have been shared with ICASA," according to MTN SA corporate services executive, Graham de Vries.
Telkom's managing executive for group communication, Jacqui O'Sullivan, confirmed the telco is definitely interested in these bands.
"This process may culminate in the development of the requisite rules that will govern access and use of these frequency bands," says O'Sullivan.
"We need to make some headway in the spectrum allocation process and this could be seen as a positive step to completing the process," according to Ovum senior analyst, Richard Hurst.
Hurst says these bands will be ideal for mobile network operators and their ability to add backhaul capacity to cater for the ongoing uptake of mobile broadband services.
Vodacom also weighed in, with a spokesperson saying the matter is "of great interest" to the operator.
"Our team of regulatory experts are busy studying the document and will make a submission to ICASA in due course," says Vodacom.
Telkom and MTN also confirmed they would make submissions to ICASA in response to the document by the given deadline of Friday, 27 November. Cell C had no response by the time of publication.
All the right moves
Hurst says ICASA is doing the right thing in this move forward.
"They do appear to be asking some provocative questions, such as whether the band should be unlicensed or licence fee exempt or licensed."
This as ICASA explained the discussion document proposes to introduce a licence-exempt approach for the V-Band, and a hybrid approach - a combination of light licensing and full licensing - for the E-Band.
Hurst says operators that could benefit are those engaged in the transmission of high-capacity data services. This includes mobile network operators, as well as other operators seeking to deliver broadband services in rural areas.
The issue of spectrum has been a contentious one for some time, with the likes of MTN SA CEO Mteto Nyati and Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko both recently making public comments calling for more spectrum allocation and better regulation to allow fair distribution.
ICASA says the aim of the document is to find the correct regulation for these two bands so that regulation is "effective and spectrum-efficient and to keep licensing delays to the bare minimum".
"It is furthermore important to note there has not been a suitable, technical, regulatory framework for the use of these bands; and this has necessitated the authority to investigate the possibility of putting in place an appropriate regulatory framework," says ICASA.
Band uses
Hurst says both bands offer operators the ability to use narrow beam high-capacity for transmission, making them attractive.
"Many point-to-point links are operated in this band elsewhere in the world, with ranges of typically a few hundred metres to a few kilometres," according to the discussion document.
E-Band's uses include mobile backhaul and aggregation for mobile networks, including 2G, 3G and 4G next-generation mobile service.
E-Band also has commercial opportunity for fixed networks, according to ICASA, that can use the spectrum for "high-capacity business services, including cellular, WiFi and WiMAX backhauling, fibre backbone extensions, redundancy fibre overlays, municipality mesh backbones and temporary connections".
Other applications could stretch to both healthcare and education, with the spectrum used for secure campus and off-site location connectivity, WiFi hotspots and security camera backhauling.
Meanwhile, ICASA says V-Band spectrum is very desirable for high-capacity uses, both for networking equipment indoors and for short-range, outside links. Applications include extending the reach of fibre-optic networks, peer-to-peer fixed operations outdoors, and streaming lag-free high-definition video from a Blu-ray video player or tablet to a television.
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