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According to a new report released by the GSM Association (GSMA) yesterday, Spectrum Pricing in Developing Countries, which found that the high spectrum price is a major obstacle to increasing mobile penetration in the developing countries.
to identify and study spectrum price trends in developing countries, their drivers and their potential impact on consumers.
The government and regulators played a key role in raising spectrum prices. Administrations are able to do this by setting very high reserve prices for spectrum auctions, which forces the operator to overpay, not to issue a spectrum roadmap and to enforce rules of thumb. Attribution mediocre. government revenues can negatively impact consumer outcomes, including more expensive mobile services and reduced network investments.
Developing countries need to adopt tighter tariff policies to improve the economic and social well-being of billions of people. Brett Tarnutzer, head of spectrum at the GSMA, explains: "For a long time, the success of the auction frequencies have been judged on the question of how much revenue can be collected rather than on the economic and social benefits of the Connection between people, policies that inflate prices and focus on short-term gains are inconsistent with our shared goals of providing better and more affordable mobile broadband services. "These pricing policies will only limit the growth of mobile Internet service. The digital economy and complicate the eradication of poverty.
The GSMA's badysis is based on the evaluation of more than 1,000 spectrum badignments in 102 countries, including 60 developing countries and 42 developed countries, from 2010 to 2017.
The countries included in the badysis include Algeria, Cameroon, Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, India, Jordan, Mexico, the United States, and the United States. Myanmar and Thailand;
Although South Africa is also a developing country and the allocation of higher frequencies has been a priority for local mobile operators, the country has not been included in l & # 39; study.
The South African market has been experiencing a problem of spectrum scarcity for some years. There have been countless calls to the government to clarify and accelerate spectrum allocation to the telephone companies.
In July 2016, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) invited operators to apply for spectrum licenses in the 700 MHz Bands, 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz, to be used to provide mobile broadband wireless access services.
However, Siyabonga Cwele, Minister of the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services (DTPS), challenged this decision in court. The White Paper on National Integrated ICT Policy was published in September 2016 and proposed a reworking of the previous policy framework for spectrum allocation in favor of an "open access regime". This is in the form of a Wireless Access Network (WOAN), which has been criticized by many stakeholders in the sector.
Some operators have proposed a hybrid model where the WOAN receives most of the spectrum but. It's there that a CSIR study came in, to determine how much spectrum the planned WOAN would need and how much remained for private companies. The study was completed in October 2017 but the results have not yet been made public.
Last August, the GSMA released a report warning countries against implementing a WOAN model. He found that WOANs do not keep their promises to offer better coverage, more competition or lower prices to consumers, most failing to take off.
The GSMA warned the South African government. it could have irreversible repercussions and have a negative impact on the economy.
Despite this, the Electronic Communications Bill (ECA), which aims to implement the objectives set out in the ICT White Paper, was approved by the Cabinet in November 2017.
Operators telecommunications and industry stakeholders commented on the ECA Bill in January and March, industry stakeholders participated in a consultation workshop. provide an update after the submission of comments, but in May, Minister Cwele said that a decision on the future of spectrum allocation in South Africa will soon be made by the Cabinet .
Successful Recipe [1] 9659002] The GSMA is of the opinion that a well-designed spectrum policy is an essential input for a thriving digital economy. The report notes that high spectrum prices and lack of transparency in spectrum allocation can discourage the deployment of LTE technologies, limit consumer welfare and delay the end of the digital divide.
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