Telecommunications and Postal Services Minister Dr Siyabonga Cwele on Thursday promised to finalise the much-anticipated spectrum policy this year.
While giving no indications of a timeline, he told media prior to the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services Budget Vote, that he was cognisant of the urgency to deliver the spectrum policy to disperse South Africa’s coveted spectrum.
However, owing to the scarce nature of the resource, the department aimed to ensure a comprehensive policy addressing every aspect of industry requirements for spectrum, as well as the fair distribution that would stimulate government’s vision of broadband for all.
“Government is aware that mobile operators need more spectrum. It is important that all national communications needs must be catered for. Government hopes that different users of the spectrum and ordinary South Africans will participate in the finalisation of this process,” Cwele said during his prebudget statement.
The policy would guide the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa’s spectrum allocation and licensing process of the much-coveted 2.6 GHz and 800 MHz band spectrum.
This emerged as mobile operators, including Cell C and Vodacom, again reiterated their calls for the high-demand spectrum’s release, as the delay was hampering the various operators’ ability to produce high-quality services over their networks.
The stalled spectrum policy had industry in a state, unable to deploy the next-generation technology required to meet increasing demand for broadband access and rising data traffic.