FINAL COMMUNIQUE

4^th AFRICAN SPECTRUM MANAGEMENT WORKSHOP

21 -25 April 2008, Sandton Convention Centre, Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa

Background and Opening

1.             The 4^th 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