Out-Law News 4 min. read
07 Jan 2015, 9:56 am
The regulator said that discussions between telecoms industry stakeholders at the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC), to be held in Geneva, Switzerland in November, would lead to the revision of the Radio Regulations (RR), an international treaty which provides "a global framework for the many and varied uses of spectrum".
The debate at the conference will be particularly important in identifying the frequency bands to be used for mobile broadband services in future, Ofcom said.
"In some cases decisions taken at WRCs relate to services which are inherently international, such as aeronautical or satellite, where the nature of the service means that the UK has little discretion to act independently," Ofcom said in its WRC update (38-page / 303KB PDF). "However, even where the UK has some discretion to act at a national level, the drive for international harmonisation to support economies of scale and interoperability, as well as the need to prevent harmful cross-border interference, means that the RR are highly influential."
Telecoms regulation expert Jon Fell of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that whilst the UK government and Ofcom will not necessarily be bound by all the decisions taken at the conference, there are sound reasons why it is in the UK's interests not to diverge from international standards adopted at the event.
"From a customer perspective, they want to be able to access mobile broadband services when abroad," Fell said. "They do not want to find services are unavailable because handsets have been configured in accordance with particular frequencies that do not correspond to frequencies used in other countries for delivering such services. There's also the cost implications of having to manufacture devices that correspond with nationally-set radio frequencies. This introduces complexity and inefficiency into the production process and represents a cost that would ultimately have to be borne by consumers."
Fell said that a major topic of discussion at this year's WRC will be whether to preserve areas of spectrum for the provision of digital terrestrial television (DTT) services or enable mobile service providers to share the spectrum.
"The main argument for 'co-primacy' is that the finite amount of spectrum available needs to be more efficiently used to cater for the explosion of data services anticipated as 'internet of things' technologies develop," Fell said. "The counter argument is that DTT services bring their own cultural and economic benefit and should not be placed at risk of interference as a result of having to share spectrum bands with other services."
In the UK the 470-694MHz band is currently used for the provision of DTT. Ofcom said it currently opposes "a co-primary mobile allocation" of the band, which it said "would see the band allocated to both mobile and broadcasting" and that it intends to discuss this position with other stakeholders in the EU as part of the "preparatory process" for the WRC.
Last year, former EU Commissioner Pascal Lamy advised the European Commission to change the use of a section of radio frequency from broadcasting to mobile broadband usage. He said the 700 MHz frequency band should be entirely dedicated to supporting wireless broadband services by approximately 2020. The band is currently used by terrestrial broadcasting networks and for transmitting sound from wireless microphones.
Lamy said, though, that broadcasters need confidence to invest in their networks. Therefore, the EU should guarantee the exclusive use of the 470-694 MHz frequency band for delivering broadcast services until 2030, subject to "further scrutiny" at a further "stock-taking" exercise which should be undertaken by 2025 at the latest, he said. He admitted, however, that international developments could necessitate a change to his suggested policy.
In his report, Lamy said there are potential moves towards greater harmonisation of spectrum use globally that could require the EU to enable the 470-694 MHz band to be used for mobile broadband services. He said the Commission could therefore adopt a more flexible plan which would enable that frequency band to be used by both digital terrestrial television (DTT) broadcasters and other communication service providers in different areas of the EU.
Fell said that the WRCs, usually held every four years, are important forums for raising issues about spectrum allocation in the medium to long term.
"Ofcom has said in its latest update ahead of this year's WRC that it is likely to have to return to the subject of reallocation of particular frequency bands for mobile broadband services at the following conference given the lack of appetite for reallocation of those bands at this time among other international stakeholders," Fell said. "In addition, it has pinpointed the availability of spectrum above 6GHz for new so-called '5G' mobile broadband services and expects to lobby for its inclusion on the agenda of topics debated at the WRC in 2019."
"It is important that such discussions are started now as it can take many years for spectrum to be redesignated, and in particular for existing services to be transitioned to alternative frequency bands. In the context of spectrum above 6GHz, it remains to be seen what underlying technologies will support '5G'services as this is something still in early development as that will influence the suitability of such spectrum for delivering mobile broadband services," he said.
In the UK, the government and Ofcom have undertaken a number of initiatives to ensure that spectrum is being used in the most effective and efficient manner.
Ofcom announced last year, for example, that 'white space' wireless technology could be used to support mobile data services from as early as this year. 'White space' is the term used to refer to the gaps that exist between radio spectrum bands already in use. Ofcom also said that the 700MHz radio frequency band will be made exclusively available to mobile data service providers by 2022 at the latest, in a move that will require some DTT services to be shifted onto other frequencies.
The regulator has said it needs to allocate radio spectrum for mobile data services to address a potential capacity shortage as consumers increasingly turn to their mobile devices to access internet services.
However, a report by spectrum management service provider LS telecom published last year raised questions about whether an anticipated capacity crunch will come to fruition. The report identified flaws in existing projections made by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) about spectrum requirements,
"The source of the overestimate results from a combination of an unrealistic user density (i.e. number of people using each application) and excessive traffic per user (i.e. data consumption per person using each application)," the report said. "The traffic densities which drive the ITU’s spectrum demand forecasts are at least two orders of magnitude (i.e. a factor of 100 times) too high when compared with those which would be expected in any developed or developing country in a 2020 timeframe."