Highlighting the TV White Spaces Deployment program in Ghana and making a strong case for the right positioning to ensure existing market competition is not distorted while honing the objectives of TVWS to Rural Deployment not-forgetting allowing all players both new and old to participate within the space.
TV White Spaces Deployment in Ghana - ASM Presentation
1. TV WHITE SPACES
(TVWS) DEPLOYMENT
IN GHANA
By. Derek Barnabas Laryea
derek.laryea@gmail.com
2. Outline
Background
Country Profile
Broadband Initiatives In Ghana
TVWS Trials in Ghana
Trial Reports – One Case in Question
SWOT
Critiquing the thirst for TVWS
Recommendation
3. Background
Frequencies in the VHF and UHF television broadcast bands
that are either unassigned or unused by existing
broadcasters or other licensees. (Microsoft, 2016)
Not all the designated channels are in use for broadcast in
any given market, therefore leading to “White Spaces” in
which a channel that is not used for broadcast may be
available for other purposes.
The actual amounts of spectrum vary by region, but White
Space spectrum ranges from 470 MHz to 790 Mhz.
Unused spectrum can be used to provide broadband internet
access while operating surrounding TV channels.
4. Country Profile
General Indicators
Population: 27million (GSS 2015)
Area: 238,537sq.km
Region: West Africa Sub-Region
ICT Regulator: National Information
Technology Agency (NITA)
Frequency Indicators
Regulator: National Communications Authority
Number of TV Stations: 93
Radio Stations: 313
ICT Indicators
Telecom Operators: 6 Operators (NCA, 2017)
Broadband Wireless Access: 4 Operators
Mobile Penetration: 130.91% (Sept 2017)
Voice Subs: 37.45M (Sept 2017)
Data Subs: 22.10M (July 2017)
Domestic Bandwidth Capacity: 16TBps (MoC,
2015)
Bandwidth Cost Dedicated: $3,000
Submarine Cables: 5 submarine cable firms
Internet Service Providers: 30 (NCA, Ghana)
VSAT Data Providers: 57
Domain name: .gh
5. Urbanization & Geography
Urban Geography is about 46%
Rural Geography is about 54%
Ghana has a lot of Mountains,
Rivers and Forests with extremely
large vegetation cover.
The TVWS deployment objectives fits
such territories and geography like
Ghana
6. Industry Broadband Initiatives
Liberalization of Telecommunications in 1994- 2000
(ADP2000)
Establishment of the NCA in 1996
Privatization of Ghana Telecom in 1996
Award of 2G licenses in 2004
Award of 3G licenses in 2008-2009
Award of 6th Mobile license in 2008
Award of Broadband Wireless Access (4G licenses) in
2010
Award of 4G license in 2016
TVWS Regulations in 2016
7. TVWS in Ghana
Regulator collaborates with Google to map
available TVWS spectrum in the country in July
2013
NCA TVWS Project Team is launched in 2013
The NCA authorized Spectra Wireless to run a 6-
month trial on January 08, 2014 and a
Commercial Trial in December 08, 2014:
Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology in May 2014
Koforidua Polytechnic/High Schools in January 2015
University of Ghana
8. TVWS Use Case – University of
Ghana (UG)
UG NoC – Network Operating Centre
(NOC)
Little Legon – University staff residence
School of Engineering
Channel 29; Link between Base Station and
5 Little Legon and 35 Little Legon
9. TVWS Use Case – University of
Ghana (UG)
TVWS Yagi Antennae
TVWS Radio & PoE used for Trials
The team findings shared
with me on this particular
Trial within the premier
University of Ghana’s
campus concluded that per
its findings the inspection
was satisfactory.
However, recommendations
were made to increasing
antenna height at the base
station site and vary its
modulation schemes
10. SWOT
Strengths
Digital Migration ongoing
Extensive TV coverage nationwide
Govt promoting Rural Broadband
Connectivity
Weakness
Lack of Regulatory Framework for
TVWS
Lack of knowledge & Awareness by
MNOs
Opportunities
Availability of un-utilized frequencies
New wireless broadband entrants
Low Internet penetration in Rural ends
Education to boost rural uptake
Threats
Interferences from existing
broadcasting firms
Strong Competition from existing 3G
& 4G Operators
Rural-Urban Migration
Rural Market Unattractive to
deployments
11. Current Status
The National Communications Authority (NCA)
intends to introduce the Television White
Space (TVWS) Spectrum Usage Regulatory
Framework in order to streamline the provision
of data services in the Television Ultra-High
Frequency (UHF) Bands
Current Regulatory Plans to further deepen the TVWS
program with the support of a regulatory framework
although trials have not proven any “eureka” gains till
date.
12. Critiquing the TVWS thirst (1)
TV White Space is unlike any technology on
the market because it uses the same
frequencies that broadcasters use to get
programming to our TV sets
Till date and from my review of Ghana’s trials,
TVWS has not
Closed the Digital Divide
Cheapened Internet Access
Enhanced Spectrum Utilization
Driven Economic Growth
13. Critiquing the TVWS thirst (2)
Current TVWS Regulatory Framework has a
huge tendency to distort market competition
Current licensing structure for TVWS world
create an unfair advantage to TVWS service
providers vrs existing tradition mobile data
service providers who have invested
significant amounts in acquiring licensed
spectrum at commercial rates.
Current trials are not ongoing in Rural
Communities which seems to be the drive but
14. Critiquing the TVWS thirst (3)
Allowing TVWS service providers to deliver
Internet/Public Data services in urban or highly
developed metropolitan areas or within
locaties served by the MNOs in Ghana will
create further revenue cannibalization.
Broadband provides significant economic
advantage but its important the thirst for more
Broadband should not jeopardize the
commercial operations of already licensed
mobile operators and the future of the UHF
15. Critiquing the TVWS thirst (4)
TVWS internet consumers from the trials are
very likely to suffer poor QoS as there is only a
best efforts expectation for service delivery.
TVWS service providers are not in a position
to guarantee high-quality mobile broadband
data services due to non-homogeneous
geographical coverage and fragmented
bandwidth availability in Ghana. This makes it
impossible to have sufficient bandwidth to
provide mobile broadband service everywhere.
16. Recommendation
TVWS should serve as a complimentary
service to the investments made by the MNOs
and the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic
Communications servicing in delivering mobile
broadband services in rural areas.
The existing National Framework should
restrict the use of TVWS to only rural
communities and all parties including existing
MNOs should be allowed to play within that
space.
17. Conclusion
Materials Sourced
www.nca.org.gh
http://www.nca.org.gh/downloads/TVWS_Technology_Public_Consultation_Rev_20_06_2
016.pdf
www.gsma.com
http://www.statsghana.gov.gh/
http://dynamicspectrumalliance.org/assets/submissions/2014-12-
17%20Dynamic%20Spectrum%20Alliance%20Comment%20on%20Philippine%20Memor
andum%20Circular.pdf
World Economic Report
World Bank Report
THANK YOU!!!
Editor's Notes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF NETWORK
The network layout is outlined in the diagram to the left above. UG has partnered Vodafone Ghana as its internet capacity provider, in which the UG is provided with 670Megabytes capacity. The network operating centre (NOC) is connected to the Vodafone Ghana’s Fibre network. The main base station is located at the residence of the Vice Chancellor. This base station is connected to the NOC through a single mode fibre optic.
From this base station, there are TVWS links to two residential areas for the UG staff (5 Little Legon and 35 Little Legon) and the School of Engineering. Channel 29 (534-542MHz) was assigned to each link are shown in Fig.1 above. At each site, there is a Carlson equipment which comprises of the radio and power-over-ethernet (PoE) units, and this is connected to an Access Point (AP) for WIFI access. The School of Engineering site is temporarily down due to faults in the TVWS equipment.
OBSERVATIONS
At the end of the inspection, the team observed that:
The emission from the TVWS devices occupied 7MHz out of the 8MHz channel, thus leaving a guard band of 0.5MHz at each edge. This will minimize interference to adjacent television or other TVWS services in the band. UG was using channel 29 for its transmissions.
The TV spectrum was scanned before channels were assigned manually to the TVWS devices.
There were TV services adjacent to the TVWS channels used by UG at the time of the inspection.
They had not yet experienced any interference.
Regardless of the high foliage presence, internet access was satisfactory at the receiving end.