Revisiting old technology and tweaking current legislation could be the answer to providing cheap broadband en masse in South Africa and other developing nations.

Microsoft Research (MSR) principal researcher Victor Bahl this week said this to delegates at the 2nd International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) International Symposium on Wireless Communications and Information Technology in Developing Countries. The event was held at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research International Convention Centre.

Bahl is a founding manager of Microsoft's networking research group and is responsible for directing research activities that push the state of art in the networking of devices and systems.

He said that globally about 20 percent of people had access to the Internet while only a third of that had access to broadband. "Wireless mesh networks have the potential to bridge the broadband divide," he said.

But, he said there is a need to revisit the policies governing radio frequency bandwidth because chunks of bandwidth are allocated to companies for their exclusive use - like television and radio stations.

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) allocates and controls the frequency spectrum locally.

"It's not true that there is no available bandwidth because the frequency ranges that have been allocated are often not used," he said.

Bahl said that in the US only about five percent of the allocated frequency is used. "If you improve the policy governing the frequency spectrum we will not be held to ransom by a lack of frequency.

"We are in for a big leap in the way connectivity happens if this changes. In the next 10 years there will be a lot of innovation," he said.

Bahl said MSR was looking into using cognitive radio technology to overcome the current constraints.

Simply put, cognitive radio technology allows a network or a device to change its frequency setting to communicate with other devices and avoid interfering with other users, like TV or radio stations.

"If we could build a network that operates on a frequency that's clear, but gets off that frequency when it detects another signal we could overcome the problems of limited frequencies."

He said broadcasters' assertion that over-the-air sensing was not technically feasible and does not provide them with adequate protection was wrong. "They don't like you operating on a frequency they have paid for."

To overcome that problem, he proposed spectrum leasing which could generate further income for the company which has the long-term lease from the national communications authority.

Bahl said cognitive radio has become popular among researchers. "Why does Microsoft care? Because we want to enable services.

"We can't provide services without networks. Do we wait for other people to establish the networks or do we go out and establish them ourselves?" he asked. "If we can demonstrate that this technology provides connectivity at a lower cost, it will take off in the developing world."