Communications regulator Icasa has concluded an inaugural forum on 5G technologies, ahead of their anticipated introduction in South Africa by the end of the decade.

The standards for 5G networks are still being bedded down internationally, but Icasa said it felt the time was right to convene a forum in South Africa to debate the issues.

The event, which took place in Sandton on Wednesday and Thursday, will be used as the starting point for an intensified collaboration between government, institutions of higher learning, research institutions and industry players on 5G, Icasa said in a statement.

The move could be seen as a little ironic given that South Africa still hasn’t formally issued spectrum licences for 4G, with operators reallocating 2G and 3G spectrum to deploy 4G networks.

“The forum aims to support the policy makers and the authority in making meaningful contributions to and participating in International Telecommunication Union processes for the development of regulations and standards” for 5G, it said.

“5G generally refers to technologies that provide services with extremely low latency of less than 1ms, download data speeds of more than 10Gbit/s, vast connectivity, high mobility and extremely low energy consumption,” said Icasa councillor Peter Zimri in the statement.

Icasa said it is confident that the inaugural meeting will “go a long way in bringing all parties together and sharing information that would see a proper and effective regulatory framework put in place”. — (c) 2017 NewsCentral Media