A Broadside Analysis of Spectrum Status in South
Africa
Road to Spectrum Reform ...
From Planning to Delivery ...
Presentation for the Parliamentarians
By Dumisa Ngwenya, dngwenya@icasa.org.za
Overview of the Presentation
– Radio frequency spectrum as one critical
elements to realise national strategic objectives
on Broadband
– International initiatives and trends on BWA
spectrum
– Spectrum Licensing status in South Africa
– Opportunities from DTT rollout
– Conclusions
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Abbreviations and some key words

WARC – World Administrative Radio Conference

WRC – World Radio Conference

FPLMTS - Future Public Land Mobile Telecommunications Systems (Precursor
to IMT-2000)

PCS – Personal Communications Services

GSM—formerly Groupe Speciale Mobile

MSS – Mobile Satellite Service

ITU – International Telecommunications Union

CEPT – European
Administrations

BWA – Broadband Wireless Access

IMT – International Mobile Telecommunications

FDD – Frequency Division Duplexing (Paired)

TDD – Time Division Duplexing (Unpaired)

PPDR – Public Protection and Disaster Recovery

RATG – Radio Access Technique Group

DTT – Digital Terrestrial Television
Conference
of
Postal
and
Telecommunications
‹#›
SA Government Strategic Objective
 The SA government has identified that the ICT industry does
not contribute fully to the economy due to dominance of
monopoly suppliers, lack of competition and weak regulation
 Outcome 6 is identified as “An Efficient Competitive and
Responsive Economic Infrastructure Network” and relevant
outputs are as:
–
Output 1: Improving competition and regulation
 including removing barrier to entry
–
Output 5: Communication and Information technology
 Broadband cost and penetration and usage
 Digital divide and rural-urban divide
 DTT rollout
 This has been made key issue by the President of South
Africa, Jacob Zuma. Other presidents in the world have taken
the same stance – e.g. President Obama in the USA.
‹#›
How can the challenge be faced?
 Broadband wireless access which talks to BWA
spectrum
 This
requires
policy
and
regulatory
considerations around spectrum allocation
methods and regional and global harmonisation
 Migration to Digital Terrestrial Television will
bring about more opportunities in broadcasting
and broadband market by freeing spectrum and
driving convergence at different levels – this is
referred to as digital dividends
‹#›
International Initiatives
 A total of 1167 MHz spectrum for BWA has been
identified international through the ITU. Most of this
spectrum has been harmonised either internationally
or regionally.
 However, it has been established that the world will
require more spectrum before year 2020 (an
addition of 553 MHz by year 2020 of which 133 MHz
must be available by year 2015).
 The presidency’s office in the USA is spearheading
a program to search for 500 MHz spectrum for BWA
that should be made available by year 2020. This
program has been endorsed by the congress. The
FCC and the NTIA are working together for
realisation of the program.
‹#›
Spectrum allocated to BWA ITU-R
Region 1 (EMEA)
Terrestrial TV Broadcasting
470
450
790
862
960
ISM (WiFi)
MSS component
1710
1885
2025 2110 2200 2300 2400 2500
WARC-92
2690
WRC-2000
3400
3600
WRC-2007
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LICENSING STATUS OF BWA
SPECTRUM IN SOUTH
AFRICA
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BWA bands in South Africa
 South Africa has adopted almost all ITU-R
designated bands for BWA and are as follows:
–
–
–
–
–
–
450 - 470 MHz – suitable for coverage
790 – 960 MHz – suitable for coverage
1710 – 2200 MHz (excluding 2025 – 2110 MHz)
2300 – 2400 MHz
2500 – 2690 MHz
3400 – 3600 MHz
 Licensing status for each band in South Africa is
shown in the few succeeding slides. The following
color coding is used:
– RED - designated but not fully licensed for BWA
– GREEN – designated and licensed for BWA
– BLUE – licensed for BWA but some re-arranging might
be required
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Licensing of 450 – 470 MHz and
TV CH 69
MTN
Vodacom
GSM900
CellC
Vodacom
MTN
CellC
···
470
GSM-R
960
880
872.8
862
832.8
827.8
790 MHz
Neotel
PMR/PAMR
464
463
460
TV CH 62
S
F
Fixed Links
454
453
450
TV CH 61
PMR/PAMR
MTN
S
F
Fixed Links
CellC
ISM band
‹#›
2200
Unlicensed
2170
Telkom
MTN
CellC
Vodacom
2110
2025
Unlicensed
2010
Unlicensed
1980
Telkom
MTN
CellC
Telkom
MTN
Neotel
WBS
Vodacom
CellC
Telkom
MTN
Neotel
Unlicensed
WBS
WBS
Vodacom
1880.0
1867.7
CellC
1855.3
Fixed Links
1842.9
1830.1
1817.7
1805.3
1920
Vodacom
1797.0
1787.0
1785.0
1772.7
1880
(DECT)
1760.3
1747.9
1735.1
1722.7
1710.3
Telkom
Licensing status of 1800 and 2100
MHz bands
Legacy Fixed Links
MSS component (paired)
‹#›
Licensing status of 2300, 2600 and
3500 MHz bands
Current used for fixed links and others services
2400
WBS
2300
Neotel
Telkom
Unlicensed
Sentech
USALs
Neotel
3598
3584
3556
3528
3514
3498
Telkom
2690
3484
3456
3428
Unlicensed
2570
3414
3400 MHz
Sentech
2500
125 MHz unlicensed
USALs
Sentech (50 MHz)
‹#›
About 500 MHz
available
In conclusion
 We have about 500 MHz spectrum identified
for BWA that is not licensed and 576 licenced
(that is about 50% is unlicensed)
 There are about 450 individual ECS and ECNS
licensees came after the famous Altech case
 Therefore there is an need to licence the 500
MHz spectrum
 We need to start identifying additional spectrum
for BWA by 2015
 At least 100 MHz of the additional spectrum
must be below 1 GHz to enable coverage and
hence universal access
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Migration to DTT and DVB-T2?

Why DVB-T2
–
Enable more coverage and higher data rate through use of:


–

Low Density Parity Check for error correction coding and the use of rotated
constellations
Multi antenna technology to provide diversity and exploitation of the earth’s
curvature
Improved functionality enabled by multiple “Physical Layer Pipes” which
separate configuration of each delivery stream
Opportunities
–
–
–
–
–
Fewer frequencies for more services (a 1/8 of current will be required for 5
fold the current number of services) – i.e. More freed spectrum, more
choice and less cost
Therefore can make additional spectrum below 1 GHz available for BWA
Ability to stream IP based traffic and use of “white spaces” – providing
another platform for BWA
More opportunities for innovation in programming and distribution –
leading to the industry contributing to the economy
Physical Layer Pipes can allow localised or regional broadcasting which
would facilitate community TV broadcasting and local content
‹#›
How do we assign spectrum?
 First Come First Serve – not suitable for high demand and
limited spectrum
 Competitive processes (market based) – Lottery, “Beauty
contest”, Auction, Spectrum pooling, some hybrid
 Some Prons and Cons
–
–
–
–
“Beauty contest” and Auction can both fulfil developmental goals if
designed properly (e.g. Through set asides) – economic equilibrium
may be the same
“Beauty contest” more costly and time consuming and prone to
human error and subjectivity – more prone to litigation
Auction allows the market to determine the value (utility function)
Spectrum pooling good for extremely limited spectrum or niche
spectrum
 Some Auction methods
–
–
–
First price sealed bid
Second price sealed bid
Simultaneous multi-round auction
‹#›
Defining Auctioning Problem
Mathematically (example)
Given F(x): F  Number of new entrants
Then the goal is to:
Maximize F(x)
Subject to:
xnew  0.3 xtotal
xmax  x  xmin
Where
x is any amount of spectrum
xnew is the spectrum to new entrants
xold is spectrum to incumbents
xtotal = xnew + xold is the total spectrum addressed
xmax is the maximum allowable spectrum for an entity
xmin is the minimum allowable spectrum for an entity
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CONCLUSIONS
‹#›
 JZ Theory of Economics (paraphrased)
If people are hungry, food is what
they need and food is what they
must have
– From Planning to Delivery
‹#›
Key spectrum strategic intents for the
next 3 Years
 Licensing of available BWA spectrum
– Re-organising GSM900 band
– Licensing of 790 – 862, 1880 – 1920, 2010 – 2025 and
2500 - 2600 MHz bands
– Frequency migration from 2300-2400 MHz and licensing
– 450 – 470 MHz decision (will be part of a colloquium)
 Management of DTT spectrum rollout
– DTT-DTT re-planning and identification of BWA
spectrum
 Review of the radio frequency plan
– Frequency migration strategy
– Additional 500 MHz by year 2020 of which 100 MHz
must be below 1 GHz by 2015
– 10 year roadmap on spectrum (colloquium)
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THANK YOU ...
QUESTIONS
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