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FINAL COMMUNIQUE
4th AFRICAN
SPECTRUM MANAGEMENT WORKSHOP
21 -25 April
2008, Sandton Convention Centre, Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa
Background and
Opening
1.
The 4th African Spectrum Management Workshop was held
in Johannesburg, South Africa at the Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg
South Africa from 21-25 April 2008.
2.
The Workshop was attended by delegates from the following
countries: Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda and Zambia.
3.
Representatives of the following local, regional and international
organizations also attended the Workshop : Ericsson, GSM Association, the
Southern African Development Community (SADC), the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU), Qualcomm, Gateway Communications,
Global VSAT Forum and Sentech SA.
4.
The Workshop was organised by Kemilinks International in
collaboration with the Department of Communications South Africa with
the support of industry partners. The Workshop was organised in two parts. The first part which
took place from 21-23 April 2008 and with the theme Fundamentals of
Spectrum Planning, featured a series of
presentations on the fundamentals of spectrum planning and the processes
required for an efficient management of spectrum. The second part which took
place from 24-25 April 2008 undertook a review and assessment of WRC07 and
its impact on Africa.
5.
The success of the Workshop was made possible with sponsorship and
support from the following sponsors: Department of Communications South Africa,
the International Telecommunication Union, Asia-Pacific
Broadcasting Union, Ericsson and the GSM Association.
6.
The Workshop was declared open by Ms Lyndall SHOPE-MAFOLE,
Director General in the Department of Communications, South Africa, represented by Ms Rose SEKESE, Deputy Director General. She delivered the
Director General’s apologies for her inability to attend personally as a result
of international travel at short notice. She sent her personal regards to all
participants and best wishes on the success of the Workshop.
7.
In her keynote address, the Director General underlined the
importance of spectrum management and noted that the workshop could not have
come at a more opportune time, given the fact that South Africa was in the
process of formulating a spectrum policy and also to begin the process for the
preparation of WRC-11. She congratulated Kemilinks International for the
initiative taken and expressed her optimism that participants would come out of
the workshop with useful recommendations.
8.
In his opening remarks, Mr Paris MASHILE, Chairperson of the
Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) welcomed all
delegates to South Africa and urged them to take full advantage of the exchange
of experience and knowledge which he expected to feature given the quality of
the programme.
9.
The CEO of Kemilinks International, Mr Shola TAYLOR in his
remarks, welcomed participants to this workshop. He stated that the workshop
was organised in response to the wishes of a number of African countries and thanked
the organisations that supported the Workshop. He thanked the Governments of
Ghana and Rwanda as well as various sponsors in the industry for hosting and
supporting previous Workshops on spectrum management.
10.
In his Goodwill Message, Mr Akossi AKOSSI, the Secretary
General of the African Telecommunication Union (ATU) apologised for not being
able to attend the workshop personally in view of other commitments. He stated
that ATU was in support of the workshop and charged the participants to come up
with a framework that ATU could utilise to strengthen the preparation of Africa’s preparation towards the next WRC.
Presentations
11.
A wide range of presentations were made by various resource
persons on issues that are pertinent to spectrum managers and facing them on a
day to day basis; this was enhanced by presentations on current experience on
spectrum management from the following countries : Cameroon, Lesotho,
Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda and Zambia.
Conclusions
12.
After deliberations of the various issues presented to the Workshop,
the following observations and conclusions were made :
13.
The Workshop has been very successful for participants,
particularly from the point of view of the high quality of the presentations
and the interactive nature of the discussions; Kemilinks should thus ensure
that it continues to maintain this high standard.
14.
Kemilinks International, with support of industry should organise more
workshops on spectrum management in Africa on a regular basis (at least
annually), to improve knowledge with focus in the near future, on such issues
such as spectrum pricing, spectrum policy, digital migration and WRC-11.
15.
Given that spectrum policy is the foundation of all activities in
spectrum management at national, regional and international levels, Administrations
that have not done so, should as a matter of urgency, elaborate on a national
spectrum policy, taking into account their national socio-economic goals and objectives,
national ICT policy, market developments, scarcity of the resource, the need to
encourage efficient use of spectrum by all users and harmonisation of spectrum
at regional level. Such policy should include guidelines on spectrum
redeployment and spectrum pricing, regular review of the policy and its impact
on the objectives, the strategy and implementation of the policy as well as a
mechanism to brief Ministers and legislators regularly on developments so as to
attract and maintain their commitment. Furthermore, it would be useful to make
use of existing templates for spectrum policy when countries are developing
their own spectrum policy.
16.
Administrations should elaborate on a clear policy on digital
migration, with due considerations to the development of the required
infrastructure, discouragement of dumping of obsolete analogue equipment, transitional
measures for the dual illumination period, mechanisms for ensuring affordable
access to set-top boxes such as providing incentives, consumer awareness,
incentives to encourage local content and a clear implementation plan and
associated timetable.
17.
The possibility of replanning GE-06 digital terrestrial
broadcasting frequency plan needs to be investigated at national, regional and
continental African levels.
18.
In seeking expert advice, consideration should be given by policy
makers, regulators, industry and other development partners to African consultants
who have a good knowledge of the continent.
19.
Regulators should engage stakeholders in their various countries
on spectrum management; the stakeholders should include Parliamentarians, Ministers,
all tiers of Government, ICT industry and consumers.
20.
The Workshop encouraged all African ICT regulators and/or relevant
ICT Ministries to collaborate with African Universities and research
institutions to conduct studies on radio-frequency propagation and other
associated matters.
21.
Preparations towards Africa’s preparations for the next WRC should
begin in earnest; towards this objective, it is necessary to strengthen the harmonization of African regional
positions at WRCs; this would require the formation of an African WRC Working
Group to prepare Africa Regional inputs and positions to WRC’s with input from
all African Countries.
22.
Such
regional positions will be derived from sub-regional and national positions
developed by Administrations (as has been the practice). However, it is
recommended that the preparatory process should begin early in the study cycle
(propose at least six (6) months after the previous WRC) as opposed to after
publication of the CPM-11/2 Report.
23.
In
developing WRC positions at national level, recommended actions include:
a. Review of previous WRC
outcomes
b. Update of National
Table of Frequency Allocations
c. Identification of key
Agenda Items and Study Groups
d. Follow up and
participation at Study Groups
e. Prioritization of WRC
Agenda Items according to national priorities
f.
Formulation
of national positions
g. Submission of inputs
to sub-regional and regional harmonization meetings
h. Participation at sub
regional and regional harmonization meetings
24.
At
Sub-regional level the following actions are recommended:
·
Based
on written national inputs:
i.
Identification
of key Agenda Items
ii.
Prioritization
of Agenda Items according to sub- regional priorities
iii.
Formulation
of sub-regional positions based on national inputs and agreed sub-regional
criteria
iv.
Identification
of Agenda Item coordinators /rapporteurs
v.
Submission
of inputs to African WRC Working Group
25.
An
African preparatory meeting should be convened within six months in order to:
a. Review the outcome of
WRC07
b. Discuss establishment
of WRC Working Group including:
i.
Structure
ii.
Terms
of Reference
iii.
Working
Methods
iv.
Schedule
of Meetings
v.
Process
and criteria for developing and approving Common Positions
c. Initiate WRC11
Preparatory Process including identification of additional spectrum
d. Host country
identification
26.
The Department of Communications of South Africa in
collaboration with Kemilinks International should ensure an effective follow
up of the recommendations of the Workshop.
27.
The Workshop congratulated Kemilinks International for the
efficient manner in which they organized the event and thanked all the public
and private sector partners, in particular the participants and the sponsors
for their contributions towards the success thereof. The Workshop encourages
the organizers to continue to maintain the high quality of the programme in future.
28.
In conclusion, the Workshop expressed appreciation to the Department
of Communications for their generous hospitality accorded to all delegates.
The Workshop was
declared closed by Peter Zimri, Chief Director, Department of Communications, South Africa.
Done at the Sandton
Convention Centre, Johannesburg 25 April 2008
For further
information, please contact
Patrick MSOMI Email
: patrick@doc.gov.za Tel +27(0)12 427
8000) Website : www.doc.gov.za
Department of
Communications, South Africa OR
Segun GEORGE Email segun.george@kemilinks.com Tel
+44 797272079 Website : www.kemilinks.com
Kemilinks
International, UK
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