A comparison of spectrum occupancy in the South African 900 MHz GSM cellular bands

Useful radio frequency spectrum is a scarce resource that needs to be eff ciently managed. Spectrum occupancy measurement campaigns have been conducted around the world to determine the extent to which currently licensed bands are utilised. However, there seems to be a general lack of information about the utilisation of these bands in the South African context. Spectrum occupancy measurements have thus been collected for the 900 MHz P-GSM and E-GSM bands, used for mobile communication in South Africa. Data was collected from two different measurement sites, namely the Hatf eld campus of the University of Pretoria (site I) and Pinmill Farm off ce park in Sandten, Johannesburg (site II). Measurement results indicate that these bands seem to be well utilised at site I (approximately 92%). However, a comparison between the results obtained at the two measurement sites shows approximately 30% lower occupancy at site II. It is also evident that, at both locations, there are differences in occupancy between the utilisation of the bands assigned to the different mobile operators. These results are placed into context through a brief comparison with other results presented in the literature.