A%20Broadside%20Analysis%20of%20Spectrum%20Status%20in%20South%20Africa

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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_at_icasa.org.za
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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
• GSMformerly Groupe Speciale Mobile
• MSS Mobile Satellite Service
• ITU International Telecommunications Union
• CEPT European Conference of Postal and
  Telecommunications 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

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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.

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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

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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 presidencys 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.

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Spectrum allocated to BWA ITU-R Region 1 (EMEA)
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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

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Licensing status of 1800 and 2100 MHz bands
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Licensing status of 2300, 2600 and 3500 MHz bands
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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

About 500 MHz available
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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 earths 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

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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

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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
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• 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

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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