ICASA to co-host DSA Global Summit in Cape Town next year

Following on from 2016’s successful summit in Bogota, Colombia, the world’s largest conference on wireless spectrum sharing is now heading to South Africa. The announcement comes as the Alliance welcomes 11 new members from Africa, Asia, North America and Europe. The new members are Telecast Technology Corp, China; Wi-Fi Interactive Network, the Philippines; Nominet, UK; M-KOPA, Kenya; Ekovolt, Nigeria; C3 Limited, Malawi; Project Isizwe, South Africa; AirJaldi Networks, India; and Marvell Semiconductors, Axiom Technologies and the IEEE, all from the US.

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Several of the new members are focused on opening up more spectrum sharing opportunities across the globe and this will be a key theme in the 2017 Global Summit in South Africa. In the continent of Africa, new member Ekovolt, a wireless broadband and technology services provider, is working to provide affordable, accessible, reliable broadband and technology solutions that cater to homes and businesses in Nigeria. Furthermore, C3 Limited is currently building a wireless network across Malawi spanning all 28 districts and Project Isizwe aims to bring the internet to people across South Africa by facilitating the rollout of free Wi-Fi for public spaces in low-income communities.

“In 2013, the DSA was chartered to work with policymakers and regulators around the world on laws and regulations designed to promote and reward more efficient spectrum utilisation,” said Paul Garnett, the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance’s chairman of the board and director of affordable access at Microsoft.

“The spectrum sharing technologies and policies, which the DSA began promoting almost four years ago, are now central to discussions about current and future spectrum access and emerging 5G scenarios. The annual summit is the premier event for policymakers and regulators to share best practices, learn about the latest spectrum sharing policies, and participate in discussions on how to maximise social and economic impact. To that end, the DSA is delighted to be partnering with ICASA to host the 2017 Global Summit in Cape Town. We look forward to welcoming policymakers, regulators, academia, public and private sector representatives and other guests in Cape Town next May.”

Co-host ICASA will play a significant role at the Global Summit, as ICASA recently published a Discussion Paper on the Framework for Dynamic and Opportunistic Spectrum Management for consultation. This paper discusses a proposal to authorise license-exempt access to unused TV channels, also known as television white spaces.