Industry lobby group the Association of Comms & Technology (ACT) wants at least some of the spectrum below 694MHz, which is currently occupied by broadcasters, to be reallocated for telecommunications services.
Speaking to the TechCentral Show in an interview last week, ACT CEO Nomvuyiso Batyi cited the convergence of broadcasting and internet streaming services as the main reason why South African operators should have access to spectrum that has historically been reserved for broadcasters.
“If we all agree that the future is digital, and if we all agree that the future is video – the metaverse and everything that comes with that – then it goes without saying that South Africa needs to have the conversation as to the spectrum that should go to telcos (telecoms companies),” said Batyi.
“I know it takes a long time for our sectors to agree, but I don’t understand the rationale for holding onto [the spectrum] when the everyone is going digital,” she said.
Communications regulator Icasa manages spectrum through two distinct processes: allotment and assignment.
Allotment merely declares what a particular block of spectrum is going to be used for. Broadcasting, mobile telecommunications and maritime communications are examples allotment categories.
Assignment, on the other hand, gives a specific licensee the right to use a block of spectrum, or part thereof, to deploy services of the type its allotment indicates. Read more on the subject here.
Spectrum assignments are completely within Icasa’s purview. Allotments, on the other hand, are agreed to in the forums of the International Telecommunication Union, which is part of the United Nations. This discourages fragmentation in the way different countries or regions deploy spectrum, limiting the potential for interference between different services.
The ITU divides the world into the three regions – creatively named Regions 1, 2 and 3 – with South Africa falling in Region 1, which is comprised of Europe, Africa, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Mongolia and the Middle East west of the Persian Gulf, including Iraq.
At the 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) in Dubai, the ITU declared that for Region 1, the 470-694MHz bands should be allotted to broadcast services. A footnote to the declaration does, however, create some exceptions to this rule for certain member countries, where some mobile services have been allowed within these bands. But for South Africa, the entire band is exclusively reserved for broadcasting.
South African broadcasters have already vacated the 694-862MHz bands, also known as the “digital dividend” bands, to make way for mobile operators that purchased access at the 2022 spectrum auction.
“In many countries, there is a sovereign national obligation on the provision of broadcasting services. The frequency band 470-694MHz is a harmonised band used to provide terrestrial television broadcasting services on a worldwide scale,” said the ITU at the 2023 WRC conference.
The argument for giving broadcasting spectrum to mobile operators is that broadcasting and broadband services are converging. Technologies such as 5G Broadcast and HbbTV, which have started replacing traditional broadcast services in more advanced economies, are examples of this convergence. ACT believes operators have more of a role to play as next-generation broadcast technology matures, and they need the spectrum to participate. But local broadcasters do not agree.
Last month, in a written submission to Icasa on the review of the digital migration regulations of 2012, MultiChoice Group said sufficient spectrum should be set aside to allow broadcasters to provide richer services such as HD (including 4K) channels and specialised 5G broadcasts using terrestrial frequencies, meaning mobile operators should not get any of the spectrum historically reserved for terrestrial broadcasting.
“This will hopefully allow digital terrestrial television operators to build commercially viable DTT bouquets, including the provision of HD channels. The mechanics of how this spectrum will be allocated and licensed is one of the key issues that must be addressed in this inquiry,” said MultiChoice.
