Subscribe

Digital dividend to address inequalities

Admire Moyo
By Admire Moyo, ITWeb's news editor.
Johannesburg, 12 Apr 2011

SA can allocate the digital dividend to address the “alarming and dangerously provocative income inequalities” existent in the society.

So said Walter Brown, project manager for the South African Communications Forum (SACF), during last week's Digital Dividend Workshop hosted by the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA).

The digital dividend is the spectrum that will be freed up when broadcasters migrate from analogue to digital terrestrial TV.

Brown, quoting the UN-Habitat - State of the World Cities 2010/2011 report, noted that nine of the 10 most unequal cities on earth are South African. The study of inequalities covers disciplines as diverse as sociology, economics, health science, ecology, chemistry and engineering.

These cities are East London, Cape Town, Ekurhuleni, eThekwini, Johannesburg, Bloemfontein, Pietermaritzburg, Port Elizabeth and Pretoria.

“This most challenging aspect of SA can and must be addressed through allocation of the digital dividend,” stressed Brown.

In order to reduce these inequalities, Brown urged ICASA to allocate the digital dividend in three phases.

For the first stage, he said the authority must make use of competitive bidding with stringent conditions on universal access, coverage and end-user price targets for broadband wireless delivery.

As an example, he pointed to flat rate pricing with service level differentiators to protect current business models.

For the second phase, he referred to unlicensed allocations for developing innovative pro-poor wireless applications, including the use of white spaces and software defined radios, wireless mesh networks, and consideration of relaxing equivalent isotropically-radiated power regulatory limits for greater coverage.

Brown reckons for the final phase, ICASA must use geographic determinants focusing first on poor urban enclaves for cost-effective innovations of networks and business models before migrating and refining these for cost-effective rural broadband development.

“Home-grown solutions for the digital dividend spectrum allocation are vital and urgent if our internal and external digital divides are to be breached,” he said.

“SACF recommended in its submission of December 2010 that ICASA considers a full national spectrum audit before decisions of any allocation are made. SACF believes this to be even more critical if the digital dividend is to be maximised.”

According to Brown, the communications forum believes that the critical technical work of rationalisation and restacking of the digital dividend spectrum have been, or will be undertaken prior to the actual allocation of this vital natural resource.

“SACF trusts also that this will be done in accordance with international and regional agreements like the WRC-07 [World Radiocommunication Conference 2007], and in consultation with neighbouring states, particularly with respect to the use of VHF and UHF bands in rural areas adjoining SA's borders,” he said.

Brown is of the view that SA must allocate the digital dividend for effective and sustainable national growth through universal access to information and knowledge via universal ICT services, delivered through converged wireless and wired broadband services.

He also pointed out that the country would get an improved national and international competitive ICT industry as a result.

“Rapid un-impeded evolution towards a modern cost-effective fully-converged national ICT infrastructure that supports SA's development towards a knowledge-driven information society will also be realised after the allocation.

“The success and sustainability of the ICT industry is vital, but the successful the sustainable use of the resulting information products is critical for sustained national development; they should not compete.”

Share