Something We Cannot See Is Holding 5G Back in Africa

There is an intangible resource that most people do not know exists and cannot be seen or touched. That resource is holding Africa back from rolling out high-speed 5G mobile services. If we don’t solve managing this resource better, then we won’t get 5G in Africa, and we’ll be left behind.

Spectrum is of critical importance in Africa. Not necessarily because Africans need high-speed mobile phone services, nor because they are likely to have tens of thousands packed into stadiums or highly dense areas (especially this year). And it’s not because self-driving cars will be populating the continent’s roads any time soon.

It is of critical importance because so few homes and businesses have fibre in Africa.

However, through Fixed Wireless Access (FWA/WTTx) solutions, 5G can provide fibre-like services without requiring the expense or time needed to install fibre. Upgrading existing base stations and deploying a CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) like a mobile router or dongle inside or outside an office or home instantly yields the fibre-like speeds that are critical for e-commerce and online learning. And now more than ever, it is clear how important both are.

Spectrum 101

Most people may think of spectrum as a range of colours in a rainbow, or a range on which political opinions belong.

But it also refers to the range of wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation. Even though these are generally invisible to the human eye, spectrum matters for communications, whether it is radio, Wi-Fi, mobile phones, or satellite broadcasts — all use electromagnetic waves to travel and reach a user.

The Role of Governments

The use of these intangible wavelengths are regulated by governments to prevent multiple users using the same frequencies of spectrum, as this would cause interference, and nothing would reach the user. At a global level, the UN oversees a process for all countries to agree on the kind of users for different frequencies (such as for Wi-Fi, mobile phones, or meteorological use). At the national level, the government decides which specific organisations or companies can use that spectrum.

National governments often charge a fee to commercial companies for using this — one purpose is to recoup the costs for managing, monitoring, and enforcing the regulation of spectrum. Another is to generate revenue for the government. And a third (and arguably the most important) is to weed out those who may not be serious about using the spectrum. In other words, they want companies that have the resources to invest in the infrastructure to use it. So the thinking goes that if serious players can afford the spectrum, they can also afford to pay for the infrastructure.

“Companies, whether big or small, existing or new, must be given access to that spectrum. And there must be enough to go around, providing it is only given to companies that are serious about using it and are seriously able to make the necessary investments.”