APC TV White Spaces and Africa Russell Southwood, CEO, Balancing Act www.balancingact-africa.com @BalancingActAfr
Overall Impact of the Transition Better use of frequencies currently used for analogue. Digital a minimum of 6 digital TV channels in one analogue channel equivalent to one 8MHz slot. Freeing up of frequencies for other uses - the digital dividend. (Discuss) Well-developed analogue TV broadcasting industry (4-5 TV channels with good national coverage) needs 400MHz spectrum but can increase to 500 or 600MHz depending on how spectrum managed. According to Ofcom, the UK s communications regulator, nearly half of the spectrum between 200MHz and 1GHz or the equivalent of 368 MHz was used to broadcast analogue television across the country
Before and After
Number of Analogue Channels BY CTRY 43% of countries only have 1-2 analogue channels.
High (SA) and Medium (KE) occupancy K
Low (RW) and very low (LR) occupancy
Overview Below the headlines Red = High; Yellow = Medium; Green = Low DRC and Uganda (152 MHz) only high in capitals Same is true for Medium countries except Ghana Majority of African countries, analogue TV broadcasting doesn t use up much spectrum and therefore doesn t occupy much in the band 790-862MHz
Forecast Channels - Extract
What is likely to happen 2% of countries will incur increase in spectrum occupancy when digital broadcasting introduced (Ethiopia). 37% of countries no change (Algeria, Libya, Rwanda, Southern Sudan, Zimbabwe, Central Africa Republic, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Sao Tome and Seychelles) 61% of African countries will incur a decrease in spectrum occupancy when digital broadcasting is introduced (Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Burundi, Cape Verde, Congo-B, DRC, Côte d'ivoire, Malawi, Morocco, Sierra Leone and Somalia)
Projected Timeable for switchover 43 countries look unlikely to meet the ITU s 2015 deadline: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo-Brazzaville, Cote d Ivoire, Djibouti, DRC, Egypt. Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Status Number Countries Notes Total countries 54 Current Status - 1 No announced timetable Affected by civil disturbance Policy Paper/Task Force/Committee Above within 6 mths 35 See table in appendix 4 Cote d Ivoire, Libya, Somalia and South Sudan 7 Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Ghana, Mali, Senegal, Zambia 4 Congo-B, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger Specific national timetable
Status Number Countries Notes Pilots 6 Angola (short one), Burundi (commercial), CAR (smallscale), DRC (small-scale), Guinea (smallscale), South Africa Current Status - 2 Launched 9 Algeria, Gabon (private), Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria (Star Times/NTA), Rwanda (Star Times), Tanzania (Star Times/TBC), Tunisia, Uganda Only 2 of which (Angola and South Africa) look likely to lead to public transition process No policy yet announced in Nigeria
Africa and TV White spaces Important Africa continues to innovate (pilot with ICASA, sponsored by Google) Providing widespread Wi-Fi access to overcome blockages at the local access level Broadcasters in USA have now backed TVWS and UK attitude gone from pilot to deployment DD is broadcasters vs telcos but little dialogue. Some conflicts. On TVWS, broadcasters are interested but cautious. Qs need to be answered
Why TVWS matters The current dead-end in Universal Service funding (recent bid in one EA country) Being asked to pay for spectrum and licences for commercially marginal, un-serviced areas need for unlicensed spectrum to address these areas The change in investment priorities by the mobile operators (upgrading core network, upgrading data (HSPA+) and LTE. Much less interest in remaining uncovered areas. Need for low-cost rural broadband solutions... LTE is not going to reach these areas Massive challenge of getting 54 countries to reform their spectrum policies, auction spectrum, re-farm spectrum. TVWS represents low-hanging fruit as it allows for the secondary, reuse of spectrum. This could happen quite quickly. Digital Dividend will be slow to deliver as countries struggle to meet deadline. TVWS provides a route for low cost brodband