Having concluded a successful spectrum auction and collected more than R14.4-billion in proceeds, communications regulator Icasa has opened the pipeline for considerable economic growth in South Africa.

TechCentral jumps straight into what this means with Riaan Graham, director for sub-Saharan Africa at Ruckus Networks, in this podcast interview.

“Put the delays (otherwise known as the 'debacle') behind us, and let's look forward to building an exciting future. The digital economy is poised to take off, and having access to fast, distributed and cheaper data is certainly going to change our economy for the better,” says Graham.

“Everybody is more efficient and more productive when they are connected," he adds. And this will become even more apparent when 5G is unlocked and truly available to both the formal and informal sectors.

“It is now up to us to find ways to use the spectrum effectively and encourage economic growth. Icasa certainly still has its part to play and could learn something from the our neighbours in Kenya, where Konza Technology City, a smart city also known as Silicon Savannah, is going to be fuelled by a ‘can-do’ attitude and abundant spectrum,” Graham adds.