National RF measurement infrastructure · South Africa
South Africa is coordinating spectrum from a registry nobody has measured.
The country has committed its dynamic-spectrum-sharing regime to a database-mediated model. That database is populated from self-reported records with gaps the regulator has acknowledged. SIGNATA is building the measurement layer underneath it.
The gap
In June 2024 ICASA gazetted a process to build a database of systems operating in 3800–4200 MHz and 5925–6425 MHz. It then gazetted a second request, seeking further information to supplement responses that had proved inadequate.
The regulator asked the industry twice for incumbent data, and still had holes. That is a matter of public record, and it is the founding observation behind SIGNATA.
Unregistered incumbents
Every incumbent missing from the registry is a future interference complaint. The coordination database cannot protect a user it does not know exists.
Over-declared incumbents
Every over-declared entry sterilises spectrum nobody can use. Exclusion zones are calculated from declarations, not from what is actually transmitting.
No evidence base for 6 GHz
The upper 6 GHz band is identified for IMT and heavily occupied by licensed point-to-point microwave and satellite uplinks. A feasibility study has been committed to. We are not aware of any continuous, independently measured occupancy dataset for that band available to inform it.
All three problems have the same solution and it is not a better form. They are only resolvable by measurement.
What SIGNATA is building
A permanent, calibrated, distributed RF sensing network producing continuous occupancy and interference data across 400 MHz – 7.2 GHz — sold as a data service to regulators, incumbents, operators and the spectrum coordination database itself.
| Property | Design target |
|---|---|
| Frequency coverage | 400 MHz – 7.2 GHz, including the full 6.425–7.125 GHz upper 6 GHz band |
| Measurement type | Continuous occupancy statistics, with coherent IQ capture on triggered events |
| Calibration | Traceable chain via transfer-standard nodes |
| Evidentiary handling | Append-only archive, hash-chained, externally anchored, independently verifiable |
| Retention | Indefinite. Historical occupancy cannot be collected retroactively. |
Measured, not modelled
Spectrum studies in South Africa are generally produced by modelling: propagation predictions built on declared transmitter parameters. Modelling is useful, and it inherits every error in the declarations it starts from.
A measurement network starts from what is actually radiating. Where the two disagree, the disagreement is itself the finding — and in a registry the regulator has twice found incomplete, disagreement is the expected case.
SIGNATA does not operate networks. No WISP, no fixed wireless, no private 5G. The moment a measurement operator transmits, it becomes a competitor to the parties it measures, and the neutrality of the data is gone. That neutrality is the asset.
Where this is
SIGNATA is pre-formation. The regulatory case is documented and the technical architecture is specified; the network is not yet deployed, and this site does not claim otherwise.
The near-term work is a prototype sensing node, a pilot deployment, and evidence contracts tied to the upper 6 GHz feasibility study. If you hold spectrum in 6.425–7.125 GHz, coordinate deployments in 3.8–4.2 GHz, or have a statutory interference-protection mandate, the conversation is worth having now rather than after the study concludes.