Icasa deserves plaudits for helping supercharge Wi-Fi

June 28, 2023 Siyabonga Mtangana

The author, Dominic Cull

Communications regulator Icasa’s decision to make available an additional 500MHz of bandwidth for Wi-Fi applications has essentially tripled the spectrum available for in-vehicle and in-building Wi-Fi connectivity, provided users upgrade their routers to the latest Wi-Fi 6E standard.

This is fantastic news for consumers.

Towards the end of May, Icasa published an amendment to annexure B of the radio frequency spectrum regulations (of 2015) in respect of the spectrum licence exemptions.

Icasa should be commended for this timely move as the lower 6GHz spectrum band has now been opened up for the provision of Wi-Fi, which is the connectivity option of choice for South African consumers and government connectivity initiatives like SA Connect and the National Broadband Project.

For home and small and medium enterprises in particular, the recent amendments to the radio regulations dramatically increase the spectrum available for use by Wi-Fi applications. Spectrum decreases contention thereby providing for a more stable environment for denser wireless networks.

This latest Icasa move caters for many more connected devices on the home Wi-Fi network, particularly in high-density and multi-level buildings. As high-speed fibre-optic cable is rolled out across South Africa, home Wi-Fi has become a bottleneck with lightning-fast connectivity crashing headlong into the limitations of wireless home and small office setups.

Faster

Too many competing devices, exceeding the range of the technology or obstacles obstructing the radio signal can all result in high-speed internet access being experienced as mediocre transfer and browsing speeds.

Fortunately, the amendment to annexure B of the spectrum regulations, coupled with the advent of the next generation upgrade that is Wi-Fi 6/6E and 7, should see faster speeds experienced by supported devices in the home and small business environments.

In addition, W-Fi 6E is a new standard that can offer innovations and allow importers to bring in cutting-edge Wi-Fi products to South Africa.

The world today is hyper-competitive and no country can afford to rest on its technology laurels. The Internet Service Providers’ Association therefore looks forward to Icasa opening the rest of the 6GHz band in a similar manner as its recent, very positive move.