A Broadside Analysis of Spectrum Status in South Africa

1. A Broadside Analysis of Spectrum Status in South Africa Road to Spectrum Reform ... From Planning to Delivery ... • Presentation for the Parliamentarians • By DumisaNgwenya, dngwenya@icasa.org.za

2. 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

3. 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 • GSM—formerly GroupeSpeciale 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

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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 presidency’s 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.

7. Spectrum allocated to BWA ITU-R Region 1 (EMEA) MSS component Terrestrial TV Broadcasting ISM (WiFi) 790 1710 862 1885 2025 960 2110 2200 2300 2400 2500 2690 450 470 3400 3600 WARC-92 WRC-2000 WRC-2007

8. Licensing status of BWA Spectrum in South Africa

9. 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

10. Licensing of 450 – 470 MHz and Fixed Links SF PMR/PAMR Fixed Links SF PMR/PAMR GSM-R MTN TV CH 61 TV CH 69 TV CH 62 · · · GSM900 CellC Vodacom MTN CellC Vodacom MTN 862 880 960 827.8 832.8 872.8 790 MHz CellC 453 463 464 454 470 460 450 Neotel ISM band

11. Licensing status of 1800 and 2100 MHz bands Neotel MTN Telkom CellC Vodacom WBS Neotel MTN Telkom CellC Vodacom WBS WBS Unlicensed 1710.3 1722.7 1735.1 1747.9 1772.7 1787.0 1797.0 1805.3 1817.7 1830.1 1842.9 1855.3 1867.7 1880.0 1785.0 Legacy Fixed Links Telkom (DECT) Vodacom Vodacom CellC CellC MTN MTN Telkom Telkom Unlicensed Unlicensed Fixed Links Unlicensed 1880 2110 1920 1980 2010 2025 2170 2200 MSS component (paired) 1760.3

12. Licensing status of 2300, 2600 and 3500 MHz bands Sentech Sentech Unlicensed Unlicensed Telkom Telkom Neotel Neotel USALs USALs Current used for fixed links and others services 2300 2400 Sentech (50 MHz) WBS 125 MHz unlicensed 2500 2570 2690 3414 3428 3456 3484 3498 3514 3528 3556 3584 3598 3400 MHz

13. 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

14. 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 earth’s 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. Conclusions

18. 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

19. 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)

20. Thank you ...Questions