The Spectrum Licensing Process

Tim Genders, Chairperson of WAPA, says that the goal is that every home in South Africa should be connected to the internet, with equitable pricing, within the next 10 years. And WAPA members will play a huge role in this programme, which is why we are covering the Spectrum Licensing process.

While one of the goals – connectivity to every household – may be a reality, the same cannot be said of the affordability/equitability of pricing. It is no secret that low-income areas pay 80 times more for data than data in high-income areas.

Here’s a quick outline of One-owner-per-frequency versus Dynamic Spectrum Allocation:

One-owner-per-frequency	Dynamic Spectrum Allocation
High price received in auctions	N/A
Protection of the existing mobile network operators (high barrier to entry for others)	Maintains high quality of connection
Limited competition	Spectrum fully used
High price of data to end user	Lower prices to the end user

 

	Homes	DSTV subscribers	Internet
Formal	11 252 000			77.6%
Traditional	1 145 500			7.9%
Informal	1 972 000			13.6%
Premium		1 500 000
Compact		2 500 000
Access		1 000 000
ADSL			600 000
Fixed LTE			300 000
Fibre			400 000
Fixed wireless			200 000

 

ADSL	600 000
Fixed LTE	300 000
Fibre	400 000
Fixed wireless	200 000

 

Africa analysis: 1.5 to 1.7 million connected households

 

WAPA proposed to the government on 2 April 2019 that allocating further spectrum should be done on a many-owners-per-frequency basis. This proven global model called dynamic spectrum allocation is promoted and driven by the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance. In essence, a frequency is allocated to a primary owner and if they are not using it in a particular area, then a secondary owner can use the frequency. This chain allocation to a tertiary owner should the secondary owner also not use the frequency.

This method brings down the price of the spectrum and allows meaningful competition to arise. The end result will be more connectivity at a higher quality and, importantly, a lower price to 90% of South African homes currently relying on mobile data.

The frequencies where WAPA requested this method to be adopted for future re-allocation are 470-694 MHz, 3.6-3.7 GHz, 5.9 to 6.4 GHz and 24 GHz.