The communications industry regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa), has delivered good news and bad news to South African mobile operators and their customers.
The good news is that it has issued temporary radio frequency spectrum to the major operators as well as several specialist service providers. The bad news is that, even under conditions of unprecedented urgency, it took more than three weeks to allocate what has been termed “emergency” spectrum.
The suspended Minister of Communications, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, announced on 25 March – the day before lockdown was due to commence – that government had instructed Icasa to issue temporary spectrum to operators to expand the network during the nationwide lockdown.
“The authority must prioritise the regulatory framework applicable to the management and licensing of radio frequency spectrum that would enable implementation of this direction on an urgent basis,” she declared.
However, there was little hope that the urgency in the announcement would be matched by urgency in spectrum allocation.
As far back as September 2018, the president declared that government would take “swift action” on the licensing of high-demand spectrum, and in February 2019 Finance Minister Tito Mboweni promised in his budget speech to “work relentlessly” with the Minister of Communications to ensure urgent allocation of spectrum. Policy direction was only issued by the Minister in July, and the current promise is that spectrum will be issued by the end of this year.
With the government presiding over such regulatory sloth, how could we expect any true urgency in emergency spectrum allocation? In the same way that it is already more than 18 months since “swift action” was promised on spectrum allocation, the urgent issuing of spectrum announced at the start of lockdown has only come into effect after the end of the original lockdown period.
That said, the spectrum will still be a valuable addition to the arsenal being arrayed against the impact of COVID-19 on the economy.
Most significantly, Icasa required that all recipients of temporary spectrum “support and create virtual teaching and classrooms”, in line with requirements to be determined by the Department of Basic Education and the Department of Communications during the National State of Disaster.
Icasa said in its statement: “The Authority exercised extreme care in the assignment of this temporary spectrum to existing licensees in order to achieve the objectives of the COVID-19 Regulations which are aimed at alleviating network challenges, easing congestion and ensuring good quality of service for consumers. In most of these assignments, applicants were granted additional spectrum as applied for. However, there are a few exceptional cases where the Authority had to apply practical and non-discriminatory principles to ensure that no licensee is prejudiced.”
Icasa announced it had considered applications for temporary radio frequency spectrum assignments in the 700MHz, 800MHz, 2300MHz, 2600MHz and 3500MHz bands, including the use of Television Whitespaces (TVWS), in an effort to ensure connectivity for all during the National State of Disaster period.
However, of 35 applications received, only half – 17 – were found to be in line with required criteria and conditions, such as providing a network performance report before the COVID-19 outbreak, as well as modelled network performance with the additional spectrum requested.
Read more on the next page about which networks have been allocated spectrum.
The following allocation was announced by Icasa in its statement:
Assignment of the radio frequency spectrum in the 700/800MHz bands
The Authority noted that these bands were in demand. However, due to the fact that analogue and digital Television Broadcasting services are still operating in the 700MHz and 800MHz frequency bands, sharing and co-existence in these frequency bands would have to be implemented systematically through a geographic separation of International Mobile Telecommunication (IMT) Systems and Broadcasting Services in affected areas in accordance with the updated 2013 Terrestrial Broadcasting Frequency Plan as published.
The following applicants were assigned spectrum in these bands:
1. Telkom has been temporarily assigned 40MHz
2. MTN has been temporarily assigned 40MHz
3. Vodacom has been temporarily assigned 40MHz
Assignment of the radio frequency spectrum in the 2300MHz band
The following applicants were assigned spectrum in this band:
1. Telkom has been temporarily assigned 20MHz in addition to the 60MHz it already has in this band.
2. Vodacom has been temporarily assigned 20MHz.
Assignment of the radio frequency spectrum in the 2600MHz band
The total amount of available spectrum in this band is 170MHz. The following applicants were assigned spectrum in this band:
1. Telkom has been temporarily assigned 40MHz
2. Vodacom has been temporarily assigned 50MHz
3. MTN has been temporarily assigned 50MHz
4. RAIN Networks has been temporarily assigned 30MHz in addition to the 20MHz it already has in this band.
Assignment of the radio frequency spectrum in the 3500MHz band
The total amount of available spectrum in this band is 116MHz. As in other bands, the temporary assignments in the 3500MHz band were made on the principles of non-discrimination to all qualifying applicants. The following applicants were assigned temporary spectrum in this band:
1. Telkom has been temporarily assigned 12MHz out of the 32MHz applied for. It is important to note that Telkom is currently assigned 28MHz in the 3500MHz band and was assigned 12MHz to afford it adequate capacity spectrum to meet the demand occasioned by the pandemic during this period.
2. Vodacom has been temporarily assigned 50MHz as applied for.
3. MTN has been temporarily assigned 50MHz out of the 70MHz applied for.
4. Liquid Telecoms has been temporarily assigned 4MHz; which adds to the 56MHz it already has in this band.
Authorisation to use TVWS (TV White Spaces) during the National State of Disaster
The Authority received applications from Mthinte Communications, Levin Global and Morai Solutions for the use of TVWS in the 470 – 694 MHz band.
The authorisation for use of TVWS by these applicants was granted subject to the following conditions:
1. The applicant must obtain approval from the CSIR, in conjunction with the Authority, with respect to Geo-Location Secondary Database (GLSD) connectivity for compliance with the use of TVWS in South Africa;
2. The applicant must obtain type approval certification from ICASA for its electronic communications equipment; and
3. In the event that harmful interference occurs to existing broadcasters, the applicant must immediately terminate its services and notify the Authority accordingly.
Conditions associated with the temporary spectrum assignment
All successful licensees for temporary IMT radio frequency spectrum assignments must ensure that they support and create virtual teaching and classrooms as determined by the Department of Basic Education and the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies in various districts during the National State of Disaster. Furthermore, all radio frequency spectrum licensees must zero rate all COVID-19 sites as identified from time to time by the Department of Health and published in the Government Gazette.