Mondi Hattingh, co-director of Skywire, explained that rapid growth in internet usage via wireless ISPs means that correct licensing and usage of spectrum allocations has never been more important, particularly as more spectrum is likely to be required in the future to accommodate increasing demands for broadband mobility and to maintain quality of service for public wireless networks.
"Spectrum allocations allow for the development of appropriate technical conditions for new users and ICASA has to ensure that these users stay within their licence scope in order to ensure that there is no problem with congestion, or any other issues," he explained. "These days, reliable, high-speed bandwidth is essential to business and, in many cases, the best alternative is wireless. Unlicensed use of spectrum is not only a legal issue, but it affects all of the other users and operators of wireless broadband."
The recent snafu came about as a result of licensed operators experiencing frequency interference, and could have resulted in more significant downtime for these service providers in the long run. "While licence fees can be onerous, and often look like their only purpose is to raise the overall cost of service provision across the value chain, these incidents prove why correct and legal licensing is so important," added Jaco Visagie, co-director of Skywire.
He and Hattingh pointed out that the convergence of wireless telecommunications technology with Internet Protocol (IP) is fostering new generations of mobile technologies. This transformation has created new demands for advanced communications infrastructure and radio frequency spectrum capacity that can support high-speed, content-rich uses.
"Although radio frequency spectrum (air) is abundant, usable spectrum is currently limited by the constraints of applied technology. ICASA's current spectrum policy is based on managing channels of radio frequencies to avoid interference and has, over many years, developed and refined the licensing system," Hattingh pointed out.
Skywire is receiving the benefit of its full IENCS licence, having been inundated with calls from businesses affected by this legal battle.
