The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) this week opened the simultaneous licence applications for several long-awaited radio frequency spectrum bands, years after first starting the process.

Interested mobile operators now had until August 4 to apply for one of the coveted 15-year licences for International Mobile Telecommunication (IMT) bands 700 MHz, 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz, which Icasa believed would go a long way in mitigating South Africa’s current bandwidth deficiency and accelerate the country’s South Africa (SA) Connect 2020 targets.

“South Africa experiences continued growth in demand for more spectrum as a result of significant growth in data traffic. The lack of availability of spectrum for IMT brings constraints and challenges in the provision of broadband services,” the communications authority said on Friday.

Icasa said the licensing of the high-demand spectrum would contribute a total bandwidth of 816 MHz towards achieving the SA Connect ambitions of bridging the digital divide and disparities between urban and rural broadband access, while enhancing competition and increasing overall broadband coverage.

With third-generation (3G) coverage reaching around 90% of the population and the mobile operators starting to deploy fourth-generation (4G) and long-term evolution (LTE) networks to meet rising demand, the spectrum shortage had forced operators to refarm their existing spectrum.

However, this meant limitations in what services operators could deploy and the quality of service they were able to provide.

According to Icasa, the spectrum available for assignment would be packaged into four lots and included 2 x 30 MHz in the 700 MHz band (703 MHz to 733 MHz / 758 MHz to 788 MHz), 2 x 25 MHz in the 800 MHz band (796 MHz to 801 MHz / 837 MHz to 842 MHz) and two 70 MHz and one 25 MHz in the 2.6 GHz band (2 500 MHz to 2 570 MHz / 2 620 MHz to 2 690 MHz and 2 595 MHz to 2 615 MHz).

The applicants that qualified as bidders would be announced by November, with the auction scheduled for January 17 to January 30.

The issuing of licences would be undertaken in March.