Although Icasa regulates all spectrum between 9kHz and 1THz, Stucke explained that the authority has not really attempted to tackle anything above 30GHz until now.
"Icasa only has a spectrum licensing framework that goes up to 30GHz. We don't know how to regulate spectrum above 30GHz," he said.
Stucke said the first challenge is that the current spectrum fee regime doesn't make sense above 30GHz as it will prove prohibitively expensive. He explained that the issue is resolvable and Icasa intends addressing it so that the industry can take advantage of EHF spectrum.
Because of its properties, EHF spectrum is most likely to be used for short-distance, high-capacity, point-to-point links – providing "very fast throughput using relatively small antennas with very high gain", according to Wapa executive committee associate and spectrum expert Jens Langenhorst. One application, Langenhorst said, would be for providing high-speed backhaul between small cellular sites (so-called picocells).
However, EHF spectrum has a number of problems, including the fact that it is only really suitable for short-distance communications (typically 2km or less) and the fact that it is highly susceptible to so-called "rain fade". Also, specifically around 60GHz, oxygen in the atmosphere "absorbs" radio signals and causes significant attenuation.
Heavy rain also causes problems, Langenhorst said. However, Simon Yomtov, country MD of networking specialist Ceragon, said South Africa is "an almost perfect place to deploy e-band". This is because rainfall is fairly low in general.
Wietz Joubert, co-founder of Redline Technologies, proposed a different solution. He said so-called "optical wireless broadband" (OWB) technology, which uses optical laser beams to transmit data at high speeds in the 300THz and 400THz bands, could be used in conjunction with EHF equipment to provide high-speed short-haul links.