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The Black Business Council (BBC) welcomes the announcement by the Minister of Communications & Digital Technologies that the Final Policy and Policy Direction to ICASA on the licencing of the Unassigned High Demand Spectrum will be issued within the next seven working days.

Sandile Zungu commented ”the BBC supports the position that government should transform the mobile market structure through this process by ensuring the licensing of the Wireless Open Access Network (“WOAN”)”.

The allocation of the spectrum to the WOAN should be done in accordance with National Spectrum Policy as currently incorporated in the National Integrated ICT White Paper which provides that “all currently Unassigned High Demand Spectrum will be set aside for assignment to the Wireless Open Access Network and will be treated in line with the above policy principle. The allocation to other players will be done through an auction”.

“The BBC supports the policy as the allocation of a significant portion of the unassigned spectrum, 55% in this case, to the WOAN will facilitate the most efficient use of this limited scarce resource” continued Zungu.

The entry of a successful WOAN will facilitate new entrances; enables significant black ownership and participation; introduce and enhance real competition; innovation and access in the sector – a first, since the advent of mobile services and democracy. More companies would be able to compete at the service level hence the BBC is calling for a 40% guaranteed long-term offtake agreements with current incumbents in order to secure the viability of the WOAN

A conducive environment and conditions for the success of the WOAN including access to existing infrastructure, and importantly, incentives that government will provide to ensure a successful entry of the WOAN as a new network service provider should be created. This development has the potential to lower the cost to communicate that have stubbornly remained high despite countless promises by the incumbent operators.

“The BBC further calls on government to expediate the migration of the analogue broadcasting services, including the digital to digital migration, in order to free and release the High Demand Spectrum to be licensed for assignment and use. This will provide policy certainty and make it easy for the WOAN to raise the necessary capital in the market for network deployment” concluded Zungu.

Issued by Black Business Council