South Africa nears 4G spectrum awards

South Africa’s long-awaited awarding of spectrum suitable for the provision of Long Term Evolution (LTE) services is drawing near. Speaking at a communications forum on Monday, Minister of Communications Dina Pule told delegates that the Department of Communications is ‘almost at the point where we will be able to allocate’ spectrum for LTE. The minister went on to say that an announcement would be made ‘probably by next month’, although she added that the 800MHz digital dividend band would only become available in 2015. Other spectrum, such as frequencies in the 2.6Hz band, is expected to be available for use immediately.