Communications regulator Icasa said on Friday that it has published a final International Mobile Telephony (IMT) roadmap that “seeks to ensure universal availability of broadband services as well as a vibrant and competitive telecommunications industry, and promote investments”.

Assigning this spectrum, and assigning it correctly and judiciously, is crucial to narrowing the digital divide in South Africa and ensuring faster and more widespread telecoms infrastructure.

“This follows an extensive public consultation with relevant stakeholders in recent weeks. It is Icasa’s view that the growing demand for mobile broadband in South Africa indicates a need for more mobile broadband bandwidth capacity in general,” the regulator said in a statement.

“It is generally known that many rural areas do not have access to mobile bandwidth, indicating a need for a more universal mobile broadband coverage, a need best served by deploying lower frequencies that propagate a wider market.

“The roadmap further involves the migration of a number of current licensees out of (or within) bands identified for IMT services. For bands where costs and benefits of the migration were not straightforward, the authority conducted further feasibility studies to determine the appropriateness of the migration.”

Icasa is simultaneously publishing a draft radio frequency spectrum assignment plan for IMT. The draft plan seeks to specify the technical conditions on the use of the frequency bands and is aimed at soliciting views from stakeholders on the rules for services operating in each frequency band.