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SA no closer to Extremely High Frequency spectrum for broadband

South Africa could soon be making use of Extremely High Frequency (EHF) spectrum for high speed internet connections, but only if the country’s communications regulator can find a solution to work around the current problems.

EHF is often referred to as millimetre wave, as it has a wavelength of between 1 and 10mm. The frequency of these bands run between 30 to 300 gigahertz (GHz), and it’s used for radar equipment, high-speed microwave data links, point-to-point high-bandwidth communication links, and unlicensed short range data.

Some have mooted the technology as a method for extending the country’s broadband infrastructure into rural areas with no cabled infrastructure.

But William Stucke from South Africa’s communications regulator ICASA explained that the millimeter wave band right now is too expensive to implement in South Africa, and that ICASA doesn’t regulate bandwidth higher than 30GHz – or doesn’t know how.

“It is really not viable to make use of these high frequency bands, because they are just too expensive – it can cost around R250 000 in Gauteng to set up. If it’s in a rural area, it can cost around R25 000 for a short distance. So high frequency-high bandwidth is unaffordable.”

Apart from the huge costs involved, there is also another issue: weather. During the first Future Wireless Technology forum in Johannesburg, the recurring theme was atmospheric attenuation. In simple terms, the higher the rainfall, the more susceptible EHF is to not working correctly.

Johannesburg and Kimberly was singled-out as the cities in South Africa that would struggle the most with rain attenuation – it’s not the frequency of the annual rainfall, but rather how hard it comes down once the heavens open.

There is another band that would be perfect for South Africa – e-band. The radio frequencies run from 2 GHz to 3 GHz and is equivalent to wave lengths between 15 cm and 10 cm. It is most used for electronic countermeasure (ECM) applications.

“SA is an almost perfect country to deploy e-band, as the weather attenuation isn’t as high as elsewhere in the world. But you don’t see any e-band use more than 2km. It can be done, but won’t be any good,” said Simon Yomtov, of high-capacity backhaul solutions company Ceragon.

Neotel CEO Sunil Joshi opened the Future Wireless Technology forum by saying its purpose is to look for solutions to enforce technology in South Africa. “We want to create a South Africa that we all want to be part of,” he said.

Speaking about Vodacom’s plans to acquire Neotel, Joshi explained that they are now just awaiting the necessary approval. “In terms of the recently news that Neotel is in talks with Vodacom about an acquisition, we have filed all the papers and will now be waiting for regulatory approval from ICASA.”

//UPDATE – 17.01

ICASA has issued just an official statement following other sites’ reporting of this conference in which it was suggested that the organisation was planning to licence EHF frequencies soon. The full text of which is below.

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) would like to distance itself from media reports that it intends to licence the extremely high frequency (EHF) radio spectrum bands in the 50GHz – 80GHz. The Authority would also like to categorically state that it has  no plans to do so in its 2014/15 Annual Performance Plan.

The Authority is putting it on record that it is only when it has taken a position on the matter, that it will make an announcement to all stakeholders.

The Authority’s position is that these statements were made by an ICASA Councillor at an event on E-band technologies organized by the Wireless Access Providers Association on Thursday, 29 May 2014; and this was done in his personal capacity, not as representing the official view of ICASA.

ICASA currently does not have a regime under which these technologies can be type approved and allowed to be used in South Africa.

[Image – file]

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