Global - Mobile - Spectrum

Synopsis

Archived report. This report was archived in 2009 and has not been updated since. Before 1990, it was only possible to use the UHF band and below, thereby limiting the speed of information transfer. Since then governments have released more of the high frequency spectra; allowing for major advances in technology and service. Spectrum auctions have become an increasingly popular way of assigning spectrum licences throughout the world, with the USA holding one of its largest auctions ever in 2006. Towards the end of 2007, the USA was granted the ability at the World Radio Communications Conference (WRC-07) to auction off the 700MHz frequency to new service providers such as Google, who has expressed interest in acquiring spectrum. Auctions took place in 2008. In Europe and other parts of the world the band 790-862MHz has been allocated to mobile telecommunication services, but not until 2015. This report provided an introduction to radio frequency spectrum, including spectrum auctions, with a focus on the USA and Europe/UK. The report also included brief analysis from BuddeComm on the topic of spectrum trading.

Table of Contents

• 1. Synopsis
• 2. Spectrum developments
• 3. Radio spectrum utilisation
  • 3.1 Overview
  • 3.2 Mobile satellite spectrum
• 4. Spectrum auctions
  • 4.1 Developments in the US
    • 4.1.1 Google’s interest in 700MHz
• 5. Developments in Europe
  • 5.1 United Kingdom
    • 5.1.1 Spectrum 2.6GHz
    • 5.1.2 Spectrum 900MHz and 1800MHz
• 6. Popularity of UMTS 900 grows
• 7. Spectrum trading – analysis
• 8. Related reports

• Exhibit 1 – What is spectrum?
• Exhibit 2 – Frequency bands and symbols
• Exhibit 3 – International frequency assignment plan – 2110 - 2450MHz bands (excerpts)
• Exhibit 4 – Possible bands for future spectrum auctions