On enabling legislation for the protection of science services: A case study of South Africa

Competing demand for spectrum as a result of increasing mobile penetration and demand for high bandwidth services has placed various science services under pressure. In many instances, commercial demands have outweighed the need for spectrum by passive services, which routinely rely on natural radio emissions from earth as well as space. Science services, too, have increasing demands for spectrum as experiments become more sophisticated and complex. In the case of astronomy, technology changes have seen massive growth in discovery potential over the years, with a number of facilities increasingly relying on local and national protection mechanisms. This paper will look at some aspects of the current demands of the scientific services and how countries may resolve this, using South Africa as an example.