African countries have been called upon to coordinate and consolidate their individual country views in relation to the ultimate deployment of mobile broadband in the digital dividend band as well as to ensure these views are transmitted and defended in the relevant ITU-R meetings.
This is according to Kenyan Ministry of ICT principal secretary Joseph Tiampati, who spoke at the just concluded 3rd ATU Digital Migration and Spectrum Policy Summit held in Kenya, which brought together delegates from countries such as Burkina Faso, Niger, Gabon and Burundi.
“As policymakers we attach utmost importance to ensuring that the international policy processes are fully leveraged to enable our countries to reap the maximum benefits from this scarce resource,” said Tiampati.
The summit started with the ministerial session, which was in agreement that countries should complete the digital migration by the June 2015 deadline.
According to the Tiampati, reviewing of the developments and progress attained within the framework on the Digital Migration and Spectrum Policy Summit was a clear indication that summit recommendations have helped to drive national, regional and international spectrum policy debates.
“Such impact includes the allocation of 700MHz in Region 1 at WRC-12, the re-planning of GE-06 plan and the segmentation of the UHF band for broadcasting and mobile broadband among others,” he said.
Also discussed were the many technological solutions available to facilitate successful completion of the migration, and innovations that would enable a variety of DTT business models.
