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TV White Space draft regulations published, DSA to discuss next month

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has published draft regulations for the use of TV White Space (TVWS) in South Africa.

At the moment TVWS is licensed for analogue TV but, as fewer local stations use the frequencies and TV makes the move from terrestrial to digital, those “spaces” get freed up.

These seemingly blank frequencies can be used to send internet connectivity to remote areas where traditional cabled technologies are not present.

The publishing of these draft regulations has been welcomed by the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance which will host its fifth Annual Global Summit in Cape Town from 9th May.

The draft regulations will be discussed at the summit the body has said.

Chief executive officer of Icasa, Pakamile Kayakethu Pongwana says that in the past spectrum allocation has been dominated by the granting of exclusive licences making the allocation of spectrum rather limited. These proposed regulations could rectify that.

“While these models are good for monetizing the spectrum and for coordination between multiple services and operators to avoid interference, they often result in underutilization of spectrum,” explains Pongwana.

The CEO goes on to say that the sector has undergone a fundamental shift in the last 10 years which has seen governments and regulators the world over embracing “spectrum commons” as a way to bring connectivity to more citizens.

As the regulations are still in the draft phase they are currently up for public comment. Public comments can be submitted to Icasa up until 19th May.

The full text of the TVWS draft regulations has been embedded below for your perusal.

[Image – Pixabay]

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