Page 113 - SAMENA Trends - August 2020

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Protection and Freedom of Information. The measures the end of July. However, the FNA has now confirmed
include the certification of critical components, trust that Telefonica met this deadline, having put 3,040
certificates from manufacturers and system suppliers, LTE stations into operation, and will therefore not be
integrity of product safety monitoring, and the fined. The firm is now required to cover a further 1,900
employment of trained specialists in safety-relevant locations by the end of September. Meanwhile, the FNA
areas, among others. The catalogue will be submitted also revealed that Telekom Deutschland (TD) was able
for notification to the European Commission. At the to meet its September deadline ahead of schedule.
same time, the Federal Network Agency has started a It is now able to supply at least 97% of households
consultation on a draft list of critical functions for key with 50Mbps mobile data rates in all federal states,
infrastructures with increased risks. These functions although it is still required to cover the main traffic
will be listed in a document prepared jointly with the routes by the end of the year. Vodafone is also obliged
Federal Office for Information Security. The functions to meet the respective September and December
currently considered critical include subscriber coverage deadlines. According to TeleGeography’s
administration and cryptographic mechanisms GlobalComms Database, earlier this year the FNA
(if part of the network), cross-network interfaces, completed the review of reports submitted by mobile
network services, and network functions virtualization network operators (MNOs) to determine whether they
Management and Network Orchestration (MANO), met the coverage requirements of the 2015 spectrum
among others. (August 12, 2020) telecompaper.com auction. These included an obligation to provide mobile
data speeds of at least 50Mbps to 98% of households
Germany’s Federal Network Agency (FNA, known nationwide and 97% of households in each federal
locally as the Bundesnetzagentur) has announced state by 1 January 2020, as well as fully supplying the
that Telefonica Deutschland has now met the interim main traffic routes. All three MNOs did not fully meet
goal to fulfil the coverage requirements of the 2015 the coverage requirements on time but the watchdog
multi-band spectrum auction. Telefonica initially failed gave Telefonica, Vodafone and TD interim deadlines of
to cover at least 40% of 7,600 unserved locations by the end of June and September in order to completely
30 June 2020 and faced a penalty of EUR600,000 fulfil the obligations by the end of this year, or face
(USD679,000) if the areas were still not covered by being fined. (August 11, 2020) commsupdate.com

Ghanaian Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has services during the health emergency. Mr. Ofori-Atta
announced the Communication Service Tax will be cut added that the government was counting on ’telcos
from 9% to 5% over the next six months, as part of a to also match this reduction in the CST by reducing
package of measures intended to lessen the economic their tariffs’. A controversial rate hike from 6% to 9%
Ghana impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumers. in September 2019 prompted widespread criticism
and accusations that telcos were transferring the cost
Presenting his mid-year budget review statement to
parliament, the minister noted the cut would benefit directly to consumers.
consumers forced to work remotely and access online (July 24, 2020) GhanaWeb

Hong Kong’s Communications Authority (CA) has spokesperson said: ‘The superb radio propagation
opened consultations into the future auction of characteristics of the sub-1GHz band spectrum enable
spectrum in the 600MHz and 700MHz bands, plus the operators to enhance mobile coverage in both indoor
reassignment of 850MHz licenses. A total of 155MHz and outdoor areas in a very cost-effective manner
Hong Kong of spectrum in the sub-1GHz range will be made and also underpin the Internet of Things and other 5G
applications.’ Comments are invited by 15 September,
available, including 70MHz of frequencies in each of
the 600MHz and 700MHz bands, which will be freed with a decision to be made in the first quarter of 2021.
after the switching off of analogue television services (August 20, 2020) commsupdate.com
on 30 November 2020, as well as 15MHz of spectrum
in the 850MHz band which is due for reassignment Hong Kong has begun an industry consultation on
in November 2023. The 85MHz of spectrum in the releasing a further slice of 4.9GHz for 5G. The city last
700MHz and the 850MHz bands can be deployed in year auctioned off 380MHz of sub-6GHz 5G spectrum,
both indoor and outdoor locations for the provision including 80MHz of 4.9GHz frequencies. The first 5G
of public mobile services, while the 70MHz in the commercial services began in April. One reason for
600MHz band is designated for indoor use to improve deploying in 4.9GHz is that the band has already been
availability in areas such as shopping malls. A CA allocated to two mainland China operators, China

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