17 June 2015 may not be a date you have circled in your diary, but Haruna Iddrisu, Minister of Communications in Ghana, has. It is the deadline for ensuring that analogue TV broadcasting is turned off in Ghana to meet the target that was set by the World Radio Conference in 2007.
On 13 January 2010, when inaugurating the National Digital Broadcasting Migration Technical Committee, Iddrisu explained that the digital switchover would advance existing technologies and free up valuable spectrum below 900MHz (generally known as the digital dividend) which could be allocated to other uses and potentially connect the underserved, particularly in remote communities.
However, it is not certain that undertaking a digital switchover should be a priority for Africa. To date, very few African countries have launched or even plan to launch digital terrestrial TV platforms, principally because there is limited consumer demand. This is firstly because many consumers have little disposable income and prefer to buy other ICT services such as telephony; and secondly because it is often possible to access multi-channel digital TV over other platforms, such as satellite or microwave multipoint distribution systems.
Instead a priority may be better access to broadband services, generating both political and economic benefits. Indeed it has already been largely demonstrated, by the World Bank for instance, that access to broadband is a catalyst for economic growth, education and greater political stability. Given the substantial landmass and the high rural population in many African countries, as well as the often poor fixed broadband network coverage, it makes sense for many African countries to use any excess spectrum for the deployment of mobile broadband networks. Spectrum below 900MHz is very well suited for such networks as the favourable propagation characteristics of these frequencies reduce the cost of wireless broadband roll-out by limiting the number of base stations needed, making it affordable for more people.
This potential demand for spectrum raises the question of whether it is therefore possible to generate a digital dividend below 900MHz without the cost and effort of conducting a digital switchover?
Technically, the answer is yes. It is possible to clear a proportion of TV spectrum without (or before) switching to digital TV. In order to do this analogue TV frequencies would obviously need to be renegotiated and retuned, and possibly some programming channels would experience a drop in coverage. However, the cost of doing this is likely to be much smaller than the cost of completing a digital switchover.
However, it is important that African governments coordinate the analogue TV spectrum they free up and that it is consistent with other major international markets, notably either Europe (790–862MHz) or the USA (698–806MHz). This is essential to ensuring that Africa benefits from the economies of scale relating to equipment. Such economies of scale would mean relatively cheap handsets and cheap mobile high-speed Internet services, due to less investment needed from operators. It is therefore critical for Africa to harmonise as much as possible with other major markets in order to take advantage of the economies of scale already being generated.
It seems that African policymakers are already conscious of such challenges. For instance, in the last Next Generation Wireless Technologies Conference For Southern Africa in April 2009 that took place in Zambia, the Communications Regulators’ Association of Southern Africa (CRASA) concluded that “various stakeholders which includes the ICT regulators and industry players must develop a mutual understanding of the regulatory issues that could impede innovativeness and deployment of the next generation wireless technologies”.
The benefits of a harmonised approach to spectrum have been quantified in a recent report for the European Commission by Analysys Mason and its consortium partners Hogan & Hartson and DotEcon. We highlighted that if a market the size of Europe was to conform to one band plan for the digital dividend, the bill of materials for the radio frequency components would be USD0.80 per device. If there were three different band plans, this would rise to USD3.80. Therefore, a harmonised band plan is very desirable.
There is a strong need for international coordination between national and international African operators and public entities in order to benefit Africa. Analysys Mason has extensive experience of assisting clients across the world in spectrum management and is ideally placed to support the international community and African regulatory authorities, governments, regulators, operators or investors in spectrum strategy and policy issues.
For more information, please contact Olivier Pascal at olivier.pascal@analysysmason.com.