Vodacom wants Icasa to give mobile operators the radio spectrum once set aside for the Woan, so it can be used to link phones directly to satellites. The company also wants the spectrum priced lower than it would cost for normal mobile use.
Vodacom Group chief technology officer Dejan Kastelic told TechCentral that the frequencies could help operators reach full coverage in South Africa. Ordinary phones would connect to satellites in places that cell towers do not reach.
“Why don’t we use those assets that still exist, call it the Woan spectrum, and maybe better position it for satellite connectivity, for us, the MNOs, to actually get access to that spectrum and use it for satellite connectivity?” Kastelic said.
The Woan was a planned wholesale open-access network that never took off. Communications minister Solly Malatsi formally withdrew the Woan set-aside in September. This came more than four years after cabinet moved to scrap the scheme.
The withdrawal leaves Icasa free to license the spectrum. The department did not say which frequencies were involved. Cell C has described the remaining set-aside as 50MHz in total, made up of blocks in the 700MHz and 2.6GHz bands.
Kastelic said satellite-to-phone services will first use IMT spectrum. These are the frequencies set aside for normal mobile networks, and the phones people already carry support them.
Special satellite bands, known as MSS spectrum, will only be added later, he said. This is because few handsets support those bands yet.
Kastelic said this is why the Woan spectrum is a good fit. Neither block is used for satellite services now. But both fall in the range that a 2027 world radio conference will look at for new direct-to-device satellite services, according to the Global Satellite Operators Association.
Low-band frequencies such as 700MHz travel further and pass through buildings better than higher bands. Operators would not use the spectrum for satellite links in busy cities. They would use it in rural areas with no tower coverage.
Price is the main problem, Kastelic said. “If you do the valuation the same standard way that you usually do for terrestrial spectrum, it will be very expensive,” he said.
“But if you utilise it only for satellite connectivity, you will not get the same value out of that spectrum, because you utilise it more in areas where there is no terrestrial coverage,” he added.
He proposed what he called “a win-win situation”. Under his plan, Icasa would value the spectrum for rural satellite coverage and assign it to operators that choose it. The price could be looked at again once satellite bands are allocated and more phones support them.
He said the approach would make sense “in the next three to five, five to seven years”.
Vodacom works with satellite partner AST SpaceMobile, which beams an operator’s own spectrum from space to ordinary phones. In the US, SpaceX has been buying spectrum for Starlink Mobile, its own satellite-to-phone service. This puts it in direct competition with mobile operators.
Kastelic also told TechCentral that South Africa could be ready to switch off its 3G networks within two years if operators work together on the shutdown.
Icasa has said it will hold its next high-demand spectrum auction in the 2026/2027 financial year. It has not yet set a date.
Source: this article is based on reporting by TechCentral. Image: TechCentral. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice Technology desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Werner Jacobs covers technology for Tzaneen Voice. Werner reports on mobile networks, data prices, internet access, smartphones, apps, AI, cybersecurity and South African tech companies. Each story explains what a new product, price change or policy means for ordinary users in South Africa.