In November 2006, the authority published a discussion document soliciting written comments from interested persons regarding the procedures and criteria for granting a radio frequency spectrum licence for competing applications or in instances where there is insufficient spectrum available to accommodate demand.
The discussion document was followed by public hearings in 2007. After that the authority issued the findings document calling on people to make further comments.
The authority has now published the draft regulations and reasons document on the procedures and criteria for granting radio frequency spectrum licence for competing applications or in instances where there is insufficient spectrum available to accommodate demand.
In terms of the reasons document, the authority has made the following determinations.
On 2.6 gigahertz (GHz) band.
* The radio frequency spectrum licences shall be assigned on a national basis.
* Given the fact that only 126 MHz is left and 30MHz will be assigned to each operator, only four national operators can be licensed.
* The upper threshold of the radio frequency spectrum which a person may be assigned amounts to 30 megahertz (MHz) for both fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) and test driven developments (TDD) methods. A licensee will receive a maximum of 30MHz for FDD and TDD methods.
* The number of radio frequency spectrum licences to be granted shall be determined by the authority and granted in terms of the regulation that the authority has also published for public comments
* The authority shall invoke the necessary statutory provisions to facilitate the in-band migration of the incumbent licensees with the designated range in order to attain a measure of equitable granting of the radio frequency spectrum;
* The granting methodology shall be published in the form of a regulation and will include requirement for a minimum of 30% shareholding by historically disadvantaged individuals.
* The authority has determined that in case where the licensed radio spectrum remain unused for considerable amount of time a principle of use it or lose it will apply.
* Once the granting methodology comes into effect as a regulation, the authority shall commence with the functional procedures detailed in the regulation which shall culminate in the granting of the radio frequency spectrum within the designated ranges.
Enquiries:
Sekgoela Sekgoela
Cell: 079 492 3450
E-mail: ssekgoela@icasa.org.za
Issued by: Independent Communications Authority of South Africa
24 July 2009
Source: Independent Communications Authority of South Africa http://www.icasa.org.za/
