?as delay in spectrum release could cost nation GH?1bn
The global association of mobile network operators — GSMA — has urged the national telecom regulator to release on schedule additional spectrum to telecom operators for mobile broadband deployment in order to save the country billions of dollars in lost revenue.
The GSMA, which is currently running a global campaign to secure the spectrum required to meet the fast-growing demand for mobile broadband as part of its mandate to represent the interest of mobile operators worldwide, has forecast that the impact of a delay in releasing the extra spectrum in the next three years will be costly as much of the benefits will be forgone.
The Director of Spectrum Policy at GSMA, Peter Lyons who was in the country on Monday at the invitation of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunication, explained that the benefits of releasing this additional spectrum for mobile broadband by 2015 in a harmonised way will ensure an additional 3.6 million mobile broadband subscribers, an additional 12 percentage points in mobile broadband penetration, and an additional GH?1.4 billion in GDP as well as an additional GH?198 million in tax revenue per annum to the government.
?We want to see additional harmonised spectrum release for mobile broadband service in the country. We estimate that if the spectrum is release by 2015 it could in effect triple mobile broadband and network capacity by 2020.
?So we expect that with this additional spectrum, there will be 11 million effective mobile broadband connections in Ghana by 2020 and this is with the necessary spectrum. Without this additional spectrum, there will be only seven million mobile broadband connections by the end of 2020.
?Additionally, we estimate that additional broadband spectrum to increased GDP, which we calculate to be about GH?1.5billion per year in 2020 and an additional 930,000 jobs created by 2020 from this additional broadband connection and release of this harmonised spectrum.
?Moreso, the forecast increase in GDP would also have a substantial impact on government tax revenues as the current tax levels will be increased by about GH?200 million a year by 2020.
?This is why harmonised spectrum is so important, and it is also the reason why the spectrum is everybody?s business because this is going to be the future lifeblood of mobile broadband of a knowledge-based economy.
?So the impact of delay in the spectrum release is therefore significant.? In Net Present Value (NPV) terms, the total forgone tax as a result of a 5-year delay will be GH?1.1billion,? he said.
The National Communication Authority (NCA) has planned to release about 2.5 GHz and 2.69 GHz band of spectrum to telecom operators by the end of 2014 — when the migration from analogue to digital broadcasting is completed to free-up extra spectrum space for other usage including mobile broadband connectivity.
The radio spectrum is a scarce natural resource which has to be managed efficiently in order to allow all eligible users the opportunity to provide communications in the country. It ranges from 9 Kilo Hertz (KHz) to 300 Giga Hertz (GHz).
Allocation of frequency by the NCA is in accordance with national priority, but in general conforms with the internationally-adopted frequency allocations principle prescribed in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Radio Regulations.
However, a frequency band allocated internationally to the fixed and mobile services might be subdivided and allocated in accordance with the national priorities partly to the fixed service and partly to the mobile service.
The Director of regulation of the NCA, Joshua Peprah, said the regulator will from next year intensify its consultative process with industry players on what spectrum is likely to be available, and also ensure that the right spectrum is available at the right cost to enable operators roll-out services to bring about economic development as the Authority is aware of the effect of mobile broadband on the economy.
He added: ?The work of digital migration has been going on in the country, and as far as the NCA is concerned we are on the right path to ensure that come 2015 a good measure of spectrum is release for mobile broadband services in this country.
?The scheme of the mobile broadband spectrum will be in alignment with international best practices so that the country can benefit from cheap devices that will be operated on this spectrum; therefore we are in consultation other regulators at the ITU level and also at the Africa Telecom Union so that the spectrum that will be made available and used effectively.
?Its allocation and the band-plan are also going to be in alignment with internationally agreed best practices,?
By Evans Boah-Mensah
