Why there’s fierce fight for 700MHZ spectrum

Rarely do major telecommunications service providers come together in a show of unity unless when up against the regulator.

If anything, the operators are more often at each other’s necks, be it through trying to outdo each other through innovative products, marketing campaigns that at times take jabs at competition and in the past, it has come to bare knuckle fights.

It was thus interesting to see the telcos take a side and fight a firm that could be the next entrant to the big boy club after it was granted a licence to rollout a fourth generation (4G) network on a trial basis.

The telcos have kicked up a storm following the issuance of a licence to Jamii Telecommunications Ltd to implement network on the 700 megahertz (MHZ) spectrum. The telcos have argued that the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) gave the firm the licence irregularly but both CA and Jamii insist the process was above board.

The merits of the spectrum that Jamii Telecoms has been licensed to pilot its network could have been the reasons behind the spirited fight.

The 700MHz band could easily be the best frequency range to deploy a high speed network on. Telecoms analysts have described it as the most valuable resource as far as mobile telephony services are concerned. This is due to cost effectiveness in rolling out networks in that an operator’s base station covers a larger area than when using other spectrums. Also, it is its ability to offer better quality services within buildings and areas with thick foliage.

It could be better than the 800MHz that Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom Kenya are using to operate actual or trial 4G networks. The two ranges of spectrum (700MHz and 800MHz) were freed up following the migration of local free to air television stations from analogue to digital broadcast platforms and have been re-purposed for mobile networks.

Superior propagation

Peter Wanyonyi, a telecoms analyst notes that the 700MHz, which is the spectrum portion from 695MHz to about 805MHz for Kenya, is superior to spectrums which operators have been using to date. He said being in the 695MHz to about 805MHz range puts the spectrum in the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) range of radio frequencies.

“The reason why it is a valuable resource is the same one that saw the 700MHz band used for terrestrial TV broadcasting: This frequency band has technical characteristics that make it particularly suited for excellent coverage of wide open spaces and in building sites,” he said.

“In radio frequency physics, the amount of received power decreases in reverse proportion to the given frequency. As a result, a 700MHZ signal will propagate much better than, say, a 2500MHz signal. Received power in turn determines data transmission speed - the higher the received power, the higher the data transmission speed,” Wanyonyi said.

He added that the 700MHz band provides the best signal and therefore the best data transmission speeds among the mobile used in Kenya. Currently, mobile operators have deployed their networks on the 800MHz to 2100MHz frequency range. “The 700MHz band will thus have superior propagation to all other mobile frequencies in Kenya. In other words, whoever gets the 700MHz band will be able to deploy and provide superior, high-performance mobile broadband services over greater distances than anyone else in Kenya. That makes the frequency band very valuable,” he said.

According to GSMA, using the 700MHZ band, an operator can cover more distance using one base station and in turn reach more people with lower investments. The block of spectrum cleared following the switchover to digital broadcast platforms is often referred to as the “digital dividend”.

“Digital Dividend spectrum is ideal for mobile broadband because it consists of lower-frequency bands that can cover wider areas with fewer base stations than mobile broadband spectrum that relies on higher frequencies,” said GSMA in a January report on digital migration in Kenya.

“This lowers deployment costs and allows operators to provide broader, more affordable coverage, especially in rural areas where connectivity can be a challenge. The digital dividend spectrum also delivers benefits in urban areas, as it supports improved indoor coverage, because these frequencies can more easily penetrate buildings.”

Kenya switched off analogue broadcast signals in 2015 in a phased manner, starting with Nairobi and its environs that yielded the first digital dividend, the 800MHz spectrum. According to GSMA, CA split the band into three blocks which were then allocated to the three mobile operators – Safaricom, Airtel and Orange – in June 2016.

These operators then begun deploying 4G networks on the spectrum and Safaricom was later issued with a licence to operate a 4G network with one of the conditions being payment of Sh2.5 billion as spectrum fees.

The second digital dividend was the 700MHz, which CA had said it would allow small operators to test networks on the spectrum but also said it would select the firms that would deploy networks on the spectrum through a competitive bidding process.