South African communications regulator, ICASA has published its final regulations on the use of the “innovation spectrum”, thereby settling one of the most hotly disputed issues in South Africa’s spectrum policy.
According to the recently released final regulations, Icasa is opening the 3.8-4.2GHz band on a licensed but discounted basis, which is expected to be used for so-called “standalone 5G” applications.
In addition to the lower 6GHz band, which will now be heavily utilised to provide both backhaul connections and last-mile wireless broadband services using Wi-Fi technology, the lower 6GHz band will be licence-exempt and available to wireless internet service providers (Wisps), Wi-Fi deployments, private networks and community operators on a shared basis.
The lower-6GHz allocation is “the most important thing Icasa has ever done in its entire history” for the wireless industry, according to Paul Colmer of the Wireless Access Providers’ Association, who has spent years lobbying Icasa to open the bands to new wireless competitors to the mobile operators. He ranked it alongside the 2006 decision to allow Wisps to build their own networks.
He said that Wisps, which presently rely on about 125MHz of loud, crowded 5.8GHz unlicensed bandwidth, will benefit greatly from the 500MHz of pure spectrum.
He said that the additional capacity will put Wisps in direct competition with fibre on capacity by enabling them to provide point-to-multipoint fixed-wireless services at gigabit speeds and hundreds of megabits per second.
5G and Wi-Fi Standalone
With speedier deployment timelines and speeds of up to 1Gbit/s over the airwaves, wireless technology will not only catch up to fiber-based internet services but may even surpass them as a result of these advancements.
The 14-month consultation period, which started with draft regulations released in March 2025 and included public meetings, coexistence simulation studies and field experiments in Durban, culminated in the regulations, which were gazetted on May 22.
According to Icasa, all access will be mediated via a “unified spectrum switch” (USS), a geolocation database that automatically establishes operating settings to stop secondary users from interfering with key incumbents, specifically satellite earth stations and fixed-link carriers.
In a global battle over the band, the lower 6GHz’s license-exempt status represents a resounding victory for the unlicensed Wi-Fi camp.
According to Wapa, opening up 1.2GHz around 6GHz might increase GDP by R560 billion.
Half of spectrum, the lower 500MHz, is covered by the final regulations without a licence. According to Colmer, the battle for the higher 6GHz spectrum (6.425-7.125GHz) is untouched and still going on.
Notably, the new regulatory framework is intended to benefit smaller operators. According to Section 2, the system is “non-market-based, non-competitive” and serves as a tool for “community network operators, SMMEs and non-dominant players.”
In the 3.8–4.2GHz spectrum, a cap of three contiguous coverage cells precludes any one operator from controlling it, while rural operators receive twice as many channels as urban ones—four contiguous 10MHz channels as opposed to two.
Moreover, the rules enable Wisps and other operators to implement 5G Standalone in the 3.8-4.2GHz range for the first time. Open-pit mining, industrial forestry, high-tech agriculture, smart estates, university campuses and autonomous vehicle networks are some examples of application cases.
According to Colmer, mining is the most promising short-term prospect. Currently, autonomous drills, shovels and trucks’ mission-critical safety systems operate on noisy 5.8GHz mesh networks that shed traffic when latency climbs.
The USS database, created by CSIR head researcher Luzangu Mfupe, is a major component of the technical architecture.
The CSIR also designed the communication protocol that devices utilise to communicate with the USS, which is now codified as the standard. Wireless internet service providers AdNotes and AfricaITA carried out the field tests in Durban on CSIR infrastructure.
However, the rules are not yet in effect. They “shall come into effect at a date to be determined by the authority (Icasa) by notice in a Government Gazette,” according to Section 24.
The choice of the USS provider, or the organisation that will actually run the database, is a more significant upcoming decision.
The CSIR is the clear choice given the reliance on technology, however the regulations are unclear on this matter.
