Economic objectives achievable through independent wireless service providers

This is good news for South Africa, where much of the landscape is currently not serviced by large telecommunications operators and fixed line service providers. Independent wireless Internet services are an important part of South Africa's telecommunications industry, enabling countless schools, hospitals and community institutions currently not serviced by the large telecommunications companies to connect to the Internet.

The South African Wireless Access Providers' Association (WAPA) represents 136 members, essentially 'wireless pioneers' which move bytes across often difficult and unfamiliar terrain. "WAPA members are geographically dispersed and offer personalised solutions to those in need. They collectively have national reach, strong local relationships and excellent technical skills. They also support smaller businesses and job creation and are key to the achievement of many of the country's economic objectives," says WAPA chairperson, Christopher Geerdts.

Release of spectrum

WAPA focuses much of its time on lobbying for the release of spectrum in the television white spaces (TVWS) frequency band for open use by wireless service providers. Currently independent wireless operators have to provide access on shared spectrum in the 2.5GHz and 5.8GHz frequency bands, which are license-exempt and unmanaged.

"The potential for broadband transformation in South Africa is enormous if we had access to spectrum," says Geerdts. "If we had access to more spectrum, we would manage it differently. We would collaborate to build infrastructure on an inclusive basis and build local industry, thereby creating jobs. Providing support to WAPA members and freeing up unused spectrum will give a major boost to broadband penetration, the pricing and quality of these services, entrepreneurship and job creation and technical skills development," says Geerdts.

During 2012, WAPA has played a significant role in addressing wireless regulatory and spectrum issues in the country. The organisation has made direct inputs at national and provincial level, and is currently chairing a TVWS trial, which is a great tender opportunity for WAPA members. WAPA has also had serious engagements with Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) about stricter enforcement of legislation governing the wireless telecommunications space.

Business opportunities

WAPA has also been involved in negotiating business enablement opportunities for its members with major Internet service providers. These agreements will enable WAPA members to provide connectivity to clients outside the reach of large Internet service providers' fibre networks. "Projects like this hold great promise for the average South African business and consumer as they will bring even greater high-quality broadband coverage to the country," says Geerdts.

Going forward, WAPA is on track to take each of its main projects further into 2013, the most important of which will be achieving industry representative body status, which gives wireless Internet service providers immunity from third-party content carried over, or hosted on their networks. The organisation is looking at forming a customer management working group to look into the development of member-friendly billing solutions. The organisation's budget surplus will also enable a number of new initiatives, such as additional training courses for members.