Long-term evolution (LTE) was not necessarily the solution to South Africa’s ambitions of providing Internet broadband access countrywide, Neotel MD and CEO Sunil Joshi said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a Neotel- and Mail & Guardian-hosted panel discussion, he noted that LTE could, however, be used as a complementary service, within the next three to five years, to those who could afford and access the technology, particularly in the urban regions.

The panel comprised Joshi, Stuff magazine editor and publisher Toby Shapshak, Mail & Guardian chief technology officer Alistair Fairweather and Telkom head of technology strategy Alphonzo Samuels.

“We need to question the right model for South Africa for the objective we want; it’s not spectrum or spectrum allocation, it is [about] what needs to be done for [complete] broadband penetration,” Joshi explained.

The nation needed to increase broadband penetration to the point where consumers were able to leverage data based on what they could afford and at speeds that provided a return to the private sector, which had invested and built the infrastructure, while allowing government to achieve its 100% broadband ambitions.

This was a delicate balance.

“Today LTE is a buzzword … it is not ready for use by the masses,” Joshi noted.

Over 80% of the country’s population was currently content with speeds of between 2 Mb/s and 5 Mb/s; however, a minority, between 10% and 15% of people demanded faster speeds.

“We need to relate to the masses, but offer a complementary service to those that want the faster speeds, and that is where LTE comes in – it gives choice.”

He suggested that broadband be rolled out to the broader South Africa through the use of older, more widely available technology, enabling full access to the Internet at speeds more in line with current demand, while LTE played “catch-up” in device and technology developments.

LTE was currently disrupting the effectiveness of current technologies, as mobile operators refarmed spectrum that was currently in use to provide the latest generation technology, while awaiting the release of much-awaited spectrum.

Fairweather, who believed that LTE was part of the solution to the country’s broadband challenges, said regulators and private sector players needed to set aside suspicions and greed - or both – and work together to derive, from the development of LTE, the same dividend realised through the delivery of third-generation technologies, which saw broadband users jump from a few thousand to over one-million within 18 months.

But government needed to approach the opportunity in the same manner as it would a mining right, realising the benefits of allocating the required spectrum to operators urgently, as well as freeing-up spectrum from analogue broadcasting frequencies, which had also been delayed for several years, Shapshak added.

He said government was to blame for the delayed move to digital terrestrial television, citing government’s attempt to “reinvent the wheel” with its initial adoption of a technical standard for the set-top boxes (STBs) required by consumers following the migration from analogue to digital television signals.

In a 2010 STB standard review, the Department of Communications - which initially, in 2006, chose the first-generation digital video broadcast transmission (DVB-T) - set aside the option of the Japanese Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting–Terrestrial (ISDB-T) standard, which was adopted by Brazil, in favour of the European DVB-T2 technology, which provides about double the spectrum efficiency of DVB-T.

“The reason we do not have the digital dividend is that people are still arguing over the STBs. That’s the real problem,” Shapshak said, referring to the current battle between broadcasters for the access control over the STBs.

“This incredibly important enabler of the knowledge economy - information transfers of everything that the Internet could make possible - is being held up by [the determination of] which friend of who in the government gets the kickback for making STBs.”

Fairweather further said the failure to migrate and enable the sector using the right policies was the fault the previous three Communications Ministers and broader government - where a fundamental lack of understanding of the interconnectedness of the technologies was entrenched - as well as of inadequate regulations.

“If the Minister[s had] really cared, they would [have] put their [feet] flat and driven this.”

He pointed to reducing the upfront costs of applying new spectrum, including limited taxing on spectrum or subsidising infrastructure, thereby enabling the roll-out of broadband to rural areas at a lower cost.