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Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
EXPERTS in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) from the Sadc region are meeting in Victoria Falls to create conditions that can foster sustainable growth of digitalisation through mobile broadband.
The meeting is in preparation for the 4th Sadc meeting for World Radio Communication 2015 set for later this year.
Officially opening the meeting here yesterday, ICT and Courier Services Minister Supa Mandiwanzira, in a speech read by acting
Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Cosmas Chigwamba, urged Sadc member states to push for creation of a connected bloc.
“By convening this meeting, we have placed before ourselves a huge task of mapping our regulatory strategy for our region’s effective part at the forthcoming World Radio Communications (WRC-15) and map the digital future of Sadc,” he said.
Minister Mandiwanzira said Africa needed suitable spectrum more than any other continent.
“We’ve to develop quest to create a connected Sadc and advance broadband for all in Sadc as shown in the allocation of the second digital dividend in 2012. We need to secure conditions that foster the sustainable growth of both broadcast service below 694MHz in the UHF band and mobile broadband, except for aeronautical service above 694MHz,” said Mandiwanzira.
Africa needs to secure suitable spectrum ranges far more than any other continent to stimulate economic growth and allow African citizens to participate in the global knowledge-based economy, he said.
Mandiwanzira said countries should identify appropriate frequencies that would enable the continent to leapfrog the process of providing mobile broadband.
Representatives from ICT Ministries, spectrum experts, industry actors and service providers from member states are attending the meeting.
It started yesterday and will end on Saturday.
Some of the issues to be discussed include mobile and amateur services and public protection issues, science services, aeronautical, maritime and radiolocation, space services, frequency management procedure and general issues relating to enhancement of international regulatory frameworks.
The technocrats are engaged in closed door meetings that would result in recommendations to be presented to parent ministries for adoption.
Meanwhile, the Sadc region has expressed concern over low uptake of ICT services by women and the girl child.
To that effect, participants will this morning visit St James High School in Nyamandlovu, Matabeleland North Province, to initiate a programme of encouraging the girl child to embrace the digital world.
Online Reporter