The digital switchover will result in television signals using
less of the sky's radio spectrum, releasing large, high quality
bands of it for other uses.
Ofcom has long favoured an almost purely commercial approach to
the re-use of that spectrum. Rather than package it into sections
for specific uses or impose strict conditions on its use it will
simply sell off packages to the highest bidder for whatever purpose
they deem fit, it said. The regulator has published a consultation
document on its proposed methods.
"Ofcom’s consultation document proposes to release the spectrum
in a way that will promote competition and innovation and allow the
widest range of technologies and services to access the spectrum,"
said an Ofcom statement. "The licences would be tradable and
flexible to allow users to determine the technology and services
they provide and to change the use of the airwaves as new
technologies and services emerge."
Ofcom said that the spectrum was likely to be used for more
digital television stations, mobile broadband use and mobile media
and mobile television uses. Industry observers have said that
television broadcasters will be unlikely to be able to compete
financially with the might of mobile phone networks for the
spectrum in an open auction.
The 2000 auction for third generation (3G) phone network
spectrum came at the height of the last internet and telecoms boom
and generated £22.5 billion for the UK Government.
As spectrum is released across Europe the European Commission
has said that it wants to harmonise certain bands of spectrum for
certain kinds of use to make sure that technologies work across
Europe.
There is no concrete proposal yet, though, and Ofcom's process
will happen in advance of any fixed plan.
"The Commission’s communication proposed a common approach to
the digital dividend and recommended identifying common bands that
could be optimised by enabling ‘clusters’ of services," said the
consultation document. "The Communication concludes its
Communication by indicating that the Commission will prepare the
required measures to reserve and coordinate the common bands at EU
level. Such initiatives are likely to have a bearing on the future
use and value of the digital dividend in the UK."
Ofcom said, though, that it would go ahead with its auction.
"Our position remains that we will seek to hold the … award as
quickly as possible … we consider that this is in the interests of
citizens and consumers because of the benefits that should follow,
linked to the potential for additional competition and
innovation."
Ofcom said that it is necessary to engage in some management of
the spectrum so that each package is usable by today's
technologies. That raises some risks that that packaging will not
be appropriate for future developments, it admitted.
"Of course, it is very likely that more potential uses will
emerge in future as technology changes and innovators create new
products," said the regulator's consultation document. "The
benefits of these unknown uses could be as large as, or larger
than, the benefits of uses that we can identify now. It may be that
these technologies will not fit neatly into the spectrum packages
that we propose for this award.
"However, spectrum packages cannot be infinitely flexible ...
our proposals to make these licences fully tradable should
alleviate some residual concerns about our inability to perfectly
“future-proof” the licences to be awarded," it said. "The spectrum
could be traded fully or partially. Partial trades could involve
trading geographic or frequency parts of the licence. For example,
if a future technology only required a 2.5 MHz bandwidth and a
licensed user owned 5 MHz of spectrum, it could trade half of its
licensed spectrum to another operator."
