Figure 7: A High-level landscape of Spectrum Sharing connectivity opportunities
Introduction
In the wake of the COVID—19 pandemic, the Government of Kenya through the Communications Authority (CA) enacted two regulatory frameworks to chart the way forward in boosting Internet access for rural Kenya. The first framework was the Authorisation of the Use of Television White Spaces (TVWS) and the second one was the Licensing and Shared Spectrum Framework for Community Networks (CNs). While these two frameworks underscore the need for enhancing broadband access to the millions of underserved Kenyans, they also ushered in a new and unique approach of utilising radio frequency (RF) spectrum, known as Spectrum Sharing (SS) or Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA).
With human and machine-driven demand for information capacity and data exchange perpertually increasing, consequently presenting challenges for mobile and wireless communication systems, Spectrum Sharing (SS) postulates an approach that is more viable and economically attractive. It does this by allowing opportunistic access to locally available but unused spectrum. In turn, it helps solve the spectrum scarcity problem, meeting the needs of the explosive growth of mobile devices as well as Internet of Things (IoT). Studies across various regimes have shown that….
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