Reference
South Africa's dynamic spectrum regime, tracked.
The Innovation Spectrum regulations are gazetted but not in force. The NRFP identifies upper 6 GHz for IMT and promises a feasibility study. This page follows what has happened and what is still pending.
Pending — the things that change the picture
| Awaiting | Status | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| s.24 commencement notice | Pending | Brings the Innovation Spectrum regulations into force. Until it is issued, the regime is law on paper and not in operation. |
| USS provider designation | Pending | Determines who operates the coordination database that the whole sharing regime depends on. |
| Upper 6 GHz feasibility study | Committed | Must resolve whether incumbents in 6.425–7.125 GHz are accommodated or migrated. Needs occupancy evidence. |
| RFSAP and channel plan, upper 6 GHz | Promised | Follows the feasibility study. |
| Draft mmWave EGAs | Watch | 24.25–27.5, 37.5–43.5, 45.5–47 and 47.2–48.2 GHz. Longer horizon. |
How we got here
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2020
Framework to qualify as a secondary geo-location spectrum database operator
Government Gazette 43398. Established that database operation is open to third parties, not reserved to a single institution.
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1 April 2021
TVWS regulations in force
Database-mediated spectrum sharing begins operating in South Africa.
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26 March 2024
ICASA findings and position paper on dynamic spectrum access
Direction set for a database-mediated sharing regime.
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June 2024
ICASA gazettes a process to build an incumbent database
Covering systems in 3800–4200 MHz and 5925–6425 MHz — the first formal acknowledgement that the existing registry was insufficient.
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June 2024
A second gazette requests further information
Issued because responses to the first request were inadequate. The regulator asked twice and still had gaps. This is the clearest public evidence that the incumbent picture is incomplete.
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28 March 2025
Draft DSA and opportunistic spectrum management regulations published
Gazette 52415, Notice 6066. Opens a consultation that ran roughly fourteen months.
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August – October 2025
Public hearings
Submissions on the public record from satellite operators, equipment vendors, industry associations and engineering houses.
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January 2026
Field trials at Ntuzuma and Ixopo, KwaZulu-Natal
5G standalone in 3.8–4.2 GHz. Reported 200 Mbit/s beyond 4 km, non-line-of-sight. The technology question is settled; the coordination question is not.
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22 May 2026
Final Innovation Spectrum regulations gazetted
Lower 6 GHz licence-exempt. 3.8–4.2 GHz licensed at a discount. A unified spectrum server mandated for coordination. Not yet in force — commencement runs through s.24.
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2 July 2026
National Radio Frequency Plan 2026 approved
Approved by the Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies.
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24 July 2026
NRFP 2026 gazetted
Identifies 6.425–7.125 GHz for IMT, and commits to a feasibility study on accommodating or migrating the incumbents currently occupying it.
The upper 6 GHz question
The band identified for IMT — 6.425 to 7.125 GHz — is not empty. It carries licensed point-to-point microwave links, including mobile operator backhaul, and satellite uplinks. Roughly 700 MHz of prime mid-band spectrum sits behind the question of what happens to those incumbents.
Accommodation and migration are both expensive, in different directions and for different parties. Deciding between them requires knowing what is actually there: which links are live, how heavily loaded, at what times, in which geographies.
We are not aware of a continuous, independently measured occupancy record for the band. The registry describes what was declared, and the regulator has already found the registry incomplete twice over an adjacent band.
The study happens once. Occupancy measurement is not retroactive — a baseline that was not collected in 2026 cannot be collected in 2028. Whatever evidence exists when the study runs is the evidence the decision is made on.
What the regime is designed to do
The Innovation Spectrum framework is expressly aimed at non-dominant players, SMMEs and community network operators, and is described in the regulations as non-market-based and non-competitive. It is industrial policy as much as spectrum policy: an attempt to open mid-band spectrum to operators who would never win a conventional auction.
That design choice has a consequence. A sharing regime serving small operators only works if incumbent protection is accurate. Protect too aggressively and the spectrum is sterilised for exactly the operators the regime exists to serve. Protect too loosely and the incumbents suffer interference they are licensed against.
The margin between those failures is set by the quality of the incumbent data.