News

The Wireless Access Providers Association (WAPA) is proud to announce the return of WAPALOZA, South Africa’s premier event for the wireless, fibre, and satellite connectivity ecosystem.

It seems our beloved mobile network operators (MNOs) have coined these terms, perhaps to spook governments and society into favouring their services – all while maintaining prepaid pricing models that could make a billionaire blush. Ironically, this "exclusion" stems not from a lack of infrastructure but from these operators' sky-high pricing structures.

WiFi technology is on the brink of a revolutionary transformation, and 2025 will likely be remembered as the year when "WiFi Everywhere" became a reality. With new advancements and standards, WiFi is poised to redefine connectivity, create unprecedented opportunities, and enable innovative applications that go far beyond fast internet access.

Ever since the news broke last week that Vodacom, South Africa’s largest cellular network operator, had its bid to buy fibre network operator Maziv blocked by the Competition Commission, we’ve been inundated by sob-stories of how this “setback” will “widen digital exclusion” in the country’s rural and underserviced areas.

The battle for the 6GHz spectrum band is heating up in South Africa, mirroring global debates on the allocation of spectrum between Wi-Fi and IMT (cellular) operators. The core of this conflict is the need for additional bandwidth to meet the exploding demand for internet connectivity.

Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) offer some of the most stable and efficient internet connectivity services available today. Yet in South Africa, these providers find themselves struggling to compete against fibre and cellular internet services, often perceived as superior despite their limitations.

Wireless spectrum is the lifeblood of communication, and one of the most important legislative decisions in any country is deciding who gets to use it and for what purpose. One of the hottest debates in South Africa today revolves around 6GHz spectrum, particularly its allocation for either WiFi or 5G services.

In South Africa, the deployment of fibre networks is critically dependent on the acquisition of wayleaves, which are permissions granted by municipalities to trench roads and public spaces for infrastructure, as well as to provision aerial infrastructure like aerial fibre.

Following the gazetting of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa’s (ICASA) position paper on the inquiry into the implementation of dynamic spectrum access and sharing, we take a closer look at the ramifications for this technology in South Africa.

WiFi is poised for significant advances in 2024, to the point where fixed wireless services in unlicensed spectrum will start taking over from the currently dominant cellular and fibre services in South Africa.