The government of Mauritius is considering using TV white space frequencies to cover the whole island in Wi-Fi, according to a news report. Experts from Singapore are due to come to the country in the third week of September to consult with the government on the matter. The Wi-Fi system is expected to use the mast infrastructure of Mauritius Broadcasting (MBC). According to interim ICT and innovation minister Roshi Bhadain, the government sees the project as feasible, given the amount of spectrum released since the launch of digital terrestrial television (DTT).

Tarifica’s Take

With demand for public Wi-Fi increasing, governmental entities as well as operators have been looking for frequencies that are either not in use or that are dedicated to obsolete applications, which they can repurpose to carry Wi-Fi signals. Unused frequencies for a type of TV broadcasting that is being superseded clearly fall into this category, so this plan by the government of Mauritius seems like a good one. In general, as worldwide data hunger drives demand for mobile spectrum of various kinds, governments have come to realize that spectrum is a finite or limited resource. Looking for underutilized or unutilized spectrum is going to be a more and more important task in the years to come.