South Africa’s major mobile network operators are beginning to integrate white-labelled licensed spectrum into their product portfolios to meet growing demand for high-speed, ultra-reliable connectivity for businesses and enterprises.
This is according to Darren Morgan, chief operating officer at Comsol, who said MNOs are finding it increasingly challenging to meet business demand with the spectrum they have available.
“MNOs use almost all their spectrum for their GSM networks, for their handset customers, which is where the bulk of their revenue has been traditionally. This leaves their enterprise divisions with limited spectrum to offer business customers,” Morgan said.
“The MNOs have deep pockets, clever teams and excellent equipment, but there’s one thing blocking them: not having enough spectrum to allocate specifically to their business customers. Some MNOs have tried to support expansion by using unlicensed spectrum. However, this approach raises questions about network performance, interference and regulatory challenges. Licensed services are better suited to support businesses, and this is why MNOs are starting to become significant customers on our network,” Morgan said.
Comsol owns 60MHz of national 3.7GHz (3 740MHz – 3 800MHz) spectrum and the largest tranche of contiguous 28GHz spectrum in South Africa, he said. “These higher-tier pieces of spectrum are very good for business communications because they offer much higher capacities.”
Prime real estate
Morgan explained that Comsol acquired this prime communications real estate early: “We acquired our spectrum in 2010. Back then, 26GHz and 28GHz weren’t seen as particularly valuable. We picked it up very early and because no one else wanted it, we took a lot of it. And now, with the advent of 5G, that spectrum sits in the 5G bands and it’s become really sought after. We are lucky that we hit that sweet spot, and we have more to dedicate purely to the business market. This puts us in a fortunate position where we actually have more spectrum than the MNOs to provide into the enterprise and business market.”
This licensed spectrum allows Comsol to offer solutions such as licensed 5G fixed-wireless access built for enterprise. Unlike unlicensed FWA, which is a best-effort service subject to noise, packet loss and jitter, Comsol said licensed FWA built for business uses dedicated spectrum, which means the service is not contended and can offer more capacity, higher upload and download speeds, and more reliable, consistent connections.
MNOs are now partnering with Comsol to offer licensed spectrum solutions with superior capacity, reliability and redundancy.
Morgan said: “To ensure they are getting the Comsol connection, customers should specifically ask MNOs, VNOs or channel partners for a Comsol service. They need to ask what technology drives the service, and what capacities will be available. You’ll often find MNOs will have to say to you, this tops out at 20Mbit/s or 50Mbit/s, it won’t go to 100Mbit/s or 200Mit/s because they just don’t have the spectrum to drive that.
“In contrast, Comsol has the spectrum to offer high-capacity connectivity. With a Comsol service, end users have the assurance that it’s a licensed service, specifically built for business. Should they need to upgrade from a 50Mbit/s connection to 100Mbp/s, they won’t be throttled, they won’t have to move to a different vendor or use a different technology that costs more. If they ask for Comsol, they are assured of SLA-based services that guarantee connectivity and performance. There is no risk of insufficient spectrum or getting an inferior unlicensed service.”
About Comsol
Comsol is South Africa’s leading provider of specialised licensed wireless connectivity, with over 27 years of experience focused exclusively on business connectivity. As the owner of the largest contiguous tranche of 28GHz spectrum in the country, along with 60MHz of 3.7GHz spectrum, Comsol delivers reliable, high-performance connectivity backed by unmatched expertise. Its solutions serve a diverse range of industries, connecting everything from enterprises and small businesses to autonomous mining equipment and industrial machines, across a nationwide network that spans more than 200 metros.
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