News

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.

In an era driven by digital connectivity, the recent events involving the unprecedented damage to three of South Africa’s major west coast undersea internet cables have thrust the country into a precarious position.

A king once asked a wise man what he would like in payment for his services. The wise man presented the king with a chessboard, and said he would like one grain of rice that doubles for every one of the 64 squares on the board. Without thinking, the king accepted, not realising that by the time he reached the second half of the board, he’d be paying the man more rice than the kingdom could produce in a year.

So, you want to become a Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP), but have no idea where to start? If you thought you could just take your existing internet connection and beam it across the neighbourhood, think again. It’s illegal to start selling internet services without a license, so you’ll want to make sure you dot your ‘i’s and cross your ‘t’s before doing anything else.