Broadband industry players` unhappiness with the allocation of certain bandwidth spectrums in SA was highlighted at yesterday`s AMC`s Broadband Strategies for the Mobile Market conference, held in Johannesburg.
Complaints that large chunks of the spectrum have been allocated to state-owned entities and the military were heard.
The 3.5GHz bandwidth is the bugbear of broadband operators, split among Sentech, Telkom and various municipalities, with some left over for geographically-restricted areas, admitted Mandla Mchunu, manager of spectrum management at the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA).
"Sentech and Telkom have chunks of the 3.5GHz bandwidth, but Sentech does not even have a WiMax model," said Steven Sidley, group CTO at Altech SA.
"The 2.3GHz spectrum is being used by the military and is unavailable. We were told by ICASA that the 2.5GHz band may become available, but this has not yet materialised," he added.
Lion`s share
Keith Bothma, divisional executive of national sales and managed services at Gijima AST, complained that: "Sentech enjoys the 'lion`s share` of the spectrum."
But Mchunu denied the allegations. "The spectrum has been divided between existing operators with licences and Sentech has been granted the additional 2.6GHz spectrum in order to accommodate its 'My Wireless` product."
Mchunu confirmed Sentech and Telkom hold portions of the 3.5GHz bandwidth, but a portion has also been reserved for the second national operator (SNO) and municipalities.
"In fact, the 5.8GHz spectrum has been made available to broadband operators and a discussion document has been released so operators may find out more about what is available.
"Spectrum is a tool to do business and we aim to allocate it to those operators with existing licences," Mchunu said.
But Sidley charged that spectrum is one of the hurdles to WiMAX implementation.
"The only way to become a public operator is to be invited by the minister. There is no way to apply for a licence and there is no one to even speak to about it," Sidley added.
Dispute
Mchunu disagreed: "Although there are cases in which the minister has the authority to issue an invite, an application process is in place."
A six month temporary licence may be gained as was the case with Internet Solutions, he explained. "Some municipalities, like the Tshwane Metro, have also been granted temporary licences."
However, Mchunu stressed the challenge the country faces is there is great demand for broadband, but not enough bandwidth.
"We try to remain flexible and the 3.5GHz band has been divided into two 14MHz bands to allow a speech channel and a receiving channel. We do allow operators to use the same channel for dual speech and receiver capabilities, known as TDD," Mchunu says.
"In some countries, there is a comparative test held to decide which operators are eventually allocated bandwidth. In my personal opinion, operators should have to fit certain criteria in order to gain licences. These criteria may be based on their business plan and strategy."
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