Icasa to free high-demand spectrum |

THE INDEPENDENT Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) will publish regulations to free high demand spectrum (HDS) to deal with rising demand and alleviate network congestion through the Covid-19 lockdown. The release of spectrum had also become crucial as it was a key intervention to stimulate economic recovery, Icasa acting chairperson Dr Keabetswe Modimoeng, said in a statement yesterday.

The Free Market Foundation said the role of the government in keeping data costs high through its failure to allocate more radio frequency spectrum airways was not widely understood.

“Data usage has skyrocketed since the Covid-19 crisis, and the lockdown began. It has reignited misinformed howls of rage that data in South Africa is too expensive. The solution to supposedly ‘high’ data prices is for the government to release more spectrum, something it has failed spectacularly to do, not least due to its botched digital migration strategy. Insufficient spectrum prevents prices from falling,” said Free Market Foundation chief executive Leon Louw.

The new regulations were developed following Icasa’s recent engagements with the telecoms sector on measures to ease regulatory compliance for the sector during the lockdown, and enable it to meet increased demand for ICT services at this time.

HDS would be released temporarily to ease network congestion, maintain a good quality of broadband services, and enable licensees to lower the cost of access to consumers.

The following International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) spectrum bands would be made available: 700MHz; 800MHz; 2 300MHz; 2 600MHz; and 3 500MHz bands.

Licensees would be required to submit their applications to Icasa by Thursday. Icasa also said it would begin processes to ensure that the permanent licensing process for HDS was expedited.

Modimoeng said the emergency release of spectrum did not negate the processes already under way for permanent assignment of spectrum through an auction, a process that Icasa planned to finalise by the end of 2020. It also did not negate the assignment of spectrum for the Wireless Open Access Network, due for completion next year.

Icasa said it was contributing and participating in the development of standards for International Mobile Telecommunications for 2020 and beyond – commercially known as 5G – with the International Telecommunications Union. It said all approved electronic communications facilities provided in the country adhere to prescribed standards.