Electronic Communications Act, 2005 (Act No. 36 of 2005)RegulationsRegulations on the use of Television White Spaces, 20181. Definitions |
In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise indicates, a word or expression to which meaning has been assigned in the Act, the meaning is so assigned:
means the Electronic Communications Act, 2005 (Act No. 36 of 2005), as amended;
means the ratio of the in-band transmit power measured in an 8 MHz TV channel, to the out-of-band emission measured in any 100 kHz segment in an adjacent TV channel;
means the vertical distance above mean sea level (AMSL) defined by WGS84;
means the vertical distance above ground level (AGL) to the radiation centre of an antenna;
means the vertical distance between a point on the ground to the radiation centre of an antenna, this height takes into consideration of an averaged surrounding terrain where the antenna is located, this height is calculated from the averaged terrain surrounding the antenna, at distances from 1.5 km to 16 km from the antenna;
means the authorisation given by the Authority to use a radio frequency or radio frequency channel under specified conditions;
means the ability to verify that a message was truly sent by the claimed sender;
means the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA);
means a technique to combine multiple contiguous 8 MHz TVWS channels in order to increase WSD transmission bandwidth and maximum data rate;
means a wireless device that can be used without an exclusive broadcast license in the Radio Frequency Spectrum certified by the Authority that communicates with the WSD.
means an encoded signal broadcast by a Master or Client device for reception by Client devices to which the Master device has provided Operational Parameters, a Master device must provide the information needed by a Client device to decode the contact verification signal at the same time that it provides the Operational Parameters;
means the classification declared by the manufacturer that identifies the level of ACLR for the device in compliance with ETSI 301 598 standard, or successor directives;
means a removable antenna that has been designed for use and supplied with the device;
means the digital terrestrial broadcasting technologies and platforms for delivery of TV content in the UHF band;
means a mechanism used to assign the unused spectrum within a frequency band of interest to secondary users, secondary spectrum assignment is done in such a way that they don't cause any harmful interference with primary user or licensee;
means a power value in decibels referenced to one milliwatt;
means the product of the power in dBm supplied to an antenna and the absolute or isotropic antenna gain in a given direction relative to an isotropic antenna over a frequency bandwidth of 8 MHz;
means the EIRP in dBm over a frequency bandwidth of 100 kHz;
is an acronym for the European Telecommunications Standards Institute;
means the ETSI Harmonized European Standard for "White Space Devices (WSDs); Wireless Access Systems operating in the 470 MHz to 790 MHz TV broadcast band; Harmonized EN covering the essential requirements of article 3.2 of the R&TTE Directive", or successor directives;
means any device that is Type Approved by the Authority with the capability to determine its own geo-location coordinates and location uncertainty, as well as to remotely determine geo-location coordinates and location uncertainty of one or more devices externally connected to it;
means a WSD that has an integral antenna, a dedicated antenna or an external antenna and is intended to operate in a fixed location only;
means the capability of a WSD to determine and report the latitude, longitude and altitude coordinates of its antenna and its geo-location uncertainty;
means a database system operated by an entity that has been authorised by the Authority to calculate and generate Operational Parameters and to provide GLSD services to the WSD within the frequency band 470 MHz to 694 MHz;
means a delegated or designated entity that operates the GLSD;
means the potential positioning error in latitude and longitude defined by the maximum difference (in metres) between the point reported by the WSDs to the secondary GLSD and the actual position of the WSD antenna;
means the provision of Operational Parameters in response to requests from the WSDs;
means the antenna designed as a fixed part of the equipment, without the use of an external connector, which cannot be disconnected from the equipment by a user with the intent to connect another antenna, an integral antenna may be fitted internally or externally. In the case where the antenna is external, a non-detachable cable shall be used;
means a radio frequency spectrum licence;
means a person to whom a radio frequency spectrum licence has been issued to, in terms of the Act;
means a wireless device that can be used without an exclusive broadcast license in the radio frequency spectrum certified by the Authority operating that communicates with the Reference Geo-Location database.3;
means a frequency value designated in megahertz;
means a plan that allocates the Radio Frequency Spectrum to Radio Services in the Frequency Bands between 8.3 kHz and 3000 GHz, contemplated in section 34 of the Act.
means a process by which a Master device sends control signals to one or more Client devices and allows them to begin communications;
means a WSD that has an integral antenna or a dedicated antenna intended to operate continuously from a fixed location and can rapidly be relocated to another location within a limited coverage area;
means the technical parameters generated by a Geo-location spectrum database as a response to a request made by the Master WSD as set forth in Regulation 6;
means the unwanted emissions that fall within the 470 to 694 MHz band;
means an open standard defined by the Internet Engineering Task force (IETF) to be used by WSDs to access the secondary GLSDs in the Request for Comments (RFC) 7545;
means a primary service has priority over all other users of spectrum band of interest in the National Radio Frequency Plan and is entitled to protection from harmful interference by other services;
means the service to which a specific band in the National Radio Frequency Plan is licensed;
means the plan developed in accordance with regulation 3 of the Radio Frequency Spectrum Regulations, Government Gazette 38641 (Notice 279 of 2015)
means a GLSD that performs baseline calculations for the countrywide TVWS availability maps and generates Operational Parameters for WSDs, for setting regulatory limits;
means any area that is not classified urban. Rural areas may comprise one or more of the following: tribal areas, commercial farms and informal settlements;
means a secondary radiocommunications service allocated for use in a specific band in the National Radio Frequency Band Plan that is assigned to a primary radiocommunications service with a condition that the secondary user shall operate without causing harmful interference to the primary radiocommunications service and that the secondary user shall not be entitled to protection from harmful interference by other users, including but not limited to the primary user;
means GLSDs operated by certified GLSD operators designated by the Authority to provide GLSD services to end users;
means a mode in which the device is inactive but is not powered-down;
means power versus frequency and, when integrated across a given bandwidth, the function represents the mean power in such bandwidth;
means the time period which Operational Parameters provided by the secondary GLSD to a Master WSD are in force;
means the power produced by a WSD, measured at the output of the transmitter to which the antenna is normally connected;
means technical mechanism used by within some networking devices in order to prevent unwanted interference between wireless networks;
means broadcast Television services;
means the unused frequencies within the radio frequency band 470 MHz to 694 MHz, excluding the Radio Astronomy sub-band 606 MHz to 614 MHz;
means a dataset containing technical parameters of terrestrial TV installations such as geographical locations, transmitting powers and antenna heights. This dataset is under the sole custodianship of the Authority;
means the frequency band from 470 MHz to 694 MHz;
means a continuously built-up area with characteristics such as type of economic activity and land use. Cities, towns, townships, suburbs, etc. are typical urban areas. An urban area is one which was proclaimed as such (i.e. in an urban municipality under the old demarcation) or classified as such during census demarcation by the Geography department of Stats SA, based on their observation of the aerial photographs or on other information.
means a wireless device that can be used without an exclusive broadcast license in the Radio Frequency Spectrum certified by the Authority;
means a geodetic system approved by the Chief Directorate's office: National Geo-spatial Information as an official ellipsoid aligned with South Africa's Hartebeesthoek94 (Hart-94) datum1.
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1 International Terrestrial Reference Frame - http://itrf.ensg.ign.fr/trans_para.php