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August 2013

PolicyTrackerThe spectrum management newsletter

PolicyTracker staff

Managing Director

Martin [email protected]

Contributing Editors

Jonathan Watson

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

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Contents

Leaked document suggests Brussels spectrum power grab 2

Kroes blames national governments for poor state of European 4G 3

Kroes says member states are too slow on 800 MHz band 3

Give 700 MHz to mobile, but provide an incentive for TV viewers 4

Germany to release 700 MHz band for mobile broadband 6

PMSE users worried about German plans for 700 MHz band 7

Spectrum usage study faces questions about methodology 8

ITU discussion paper raises concerns about long-term future of TVWS 10

Many potential TVWS applications still lack business models 11

FCC incentive auction task force issues progress report 14

UK operators can use 900 MHz, 1800 Mhz and 2.1 GHz for 4G 15

UK regulator to release spectrum for unlicensed use 15

Concerns raised over UKs short-term HDTV assignment 17

Chinese government to issue LTE licences by the end of this year 17

Mexican regulator launches international campaign on spectrum valuation 18

Cyprus to release ready-made spectrum package for new operator 19

Bulgaria to hold 2.6 GHz auction 20

Baltic states make 800 MHz progress 20

Myanmar awards two mobile licences 21

Consultations 22

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August 2013

Jul 19, 2013

Leaked document suggestsBrussels spectrum power

grabThe European Commission wants multi-country spectrum access, more policyharmonisation and greater European control

over member states assignment proceduresaccording to a document available on theinternet.

By Toby Youell

It wants to set up a co-

ordination mechanism

whereby the Commission and

other national regulators

can comment in advance on a

procedure by a member state

Leaked draft legislation that was planned to be pub-lished in September reveals the Commissions ambitions

for a substantial competence grab.The document calls for licences that cover severalmember states; the synchronisation of spectrum auctions;similar licence conditions across the European Union;and a mechanism enabling the European Commissionto prevent member states holding spectrum auctions im-properly. The document eshed out details of ideas thatKroes laid out in a speech to the European Parliament on9 July.

The proposals

Multi-country spectrum accessThe proposal suggests that users could simultaneously

acquire usage rights in several or all member states. Itsays that these licences could have a combination oflow and high frequencies for areas with different popula-tion densities. The Commission believes that this wouldintroduce predictability to the industry. It is also hoped themove would reduce costs. Deputy head of Neelie Kroesscabinet, Pearse ODonohue has told PolicyTracker thatthis measure is not another attempt to introduce pan-EUlicences. Previous attempts at pan-European licenceshave been shut down by the European Council. A re-cent study suggested that pan-European licences maymake the European telecoms market less competitive as

smaller rms are shut out. Synchronised auctionsThe proposal calls for conditions to be put in place to

synchronise the future cycles of reassignment or renewalof individual rights of use of spectrum (See p7) in bandsthat are used for wireless broadband communications. Itsuggests that licences should be extended so that futureassignments can occur at a pan-European level.

Harmonised licence conditions

The proposals call for more explicit legislative guidanceon the criteria for spectrum allocations. This includes theduration of licences, fees, the way fees are paid, auctionprocesses, obligations to provide wholesale access, set-asides, capacity and coverage obligations, competitionpolicies, and even the size of the blocks. Although thedocument says that these conditions should be harmo-nised, it does not specify the details (p7).

EnforcementA controversial aspect of the proposal is the way the

Commission is suggesting these measures should beenforced. It wants to set up a co-ordination mechanism

whereby the Commission and other national regulatorscan comment in advance on a procedure by a MemberState. The Commission then can forestall implementa-tion of any proposal which appears to be non-compliantwith Union law.

The application of various

national policies creates

inconsistencies and

fragmentation of the internal

market which hamper the

roll-out of EU wide services

Ann La France, a partner at law rm Squire Sanders,told PolicyTrackerthat this aspect of the proposal is likelyto have political problems. She said: There are quite afew member states that are loathe to give up any pow-ers at the national level and spectrum is a good moneymaker for a lot of member states so I think theyre goingto jealously guard their rights in this regard.

Meeting digital agenda targets

The policy ties in with the Commissions so-called digi-tal agenda which says all European citizens should haveaccess to broadband at a speed faster than 30 Mbps by2020.

The proposal argues that the European Commissionshould step in because the current system is so inef-cient. The application of various national policies createsinconsistencies and fragmentation of the internal marketwhich hamper the roll-out of EU wide services and thecompletion of the internal market for wireless broadbandcommunications, it says.

The proposal cites the failure of over half of EU member

states to allocate the 800 MHz band for wireless broad-band by the radio spectrum policy programme (RSPP)deadline of 1 January this year as proof that action from


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the European Commission is needed.Action at Union level regarding certain aspects of spec-

trum assignment should accompany the development ofwide integrated coverage of advanced wireless broad-band communications services throughout the Union, itsays.

Ann La France told PolicyTrackerthat these proposalsmay provide a signicant benet. I think a lot of peoplefeel that the market is very fragmented in Europe as com-pared to the United States, she said. I think the idea isto try and make sure that some of the perceived disad-vantages of the very Balkanised system in Europe wouldbe reduced but they certainly would not be eliminated....this is a massive change and theres very little timebetween now and October next year (when the currentCommissions term nishes) to get this through so I thinkit is a brave move, she added.

Kroes will have to guide the legislation through the EUs

co-decision process after the proposals are published inSeptember. She is likely to come up against rm opposi-tion from national regulators who had previously resistedattempts by the European Commission to create pan-European spectrum licences.

The German telecommunications regulator, BNetzA saidthey would not like to comment on the leak. A spokesper-son for the UK regulator, Ofcom said it would not be ap-propriate for us to comment on speculation and rumour;however we look forward to contributing to the Commis-sions work on these issues later in the year.

The report also promised guarantees for net neutrality

and an end to roaming charges. The leak was criticisedby Kroess spokesperson, who blamed it on vestedinterests.

A spokesperson for Neelie Kroes told PolicyTrackerthatKroes is looking to the long term and at the overall pictureof the European economy.

The European Commission is expected to release moreinformation about its spectrum policy next week.______________________________________________Jul 25, 2013

Kroes blames national

governments for poor stateof European 4GEuropean Commissioner for the Digital

Agenda Neelie Kroes has accused nationalgovernments of creating inconsistent andexpensive spectrum policy.

By Toby Youell

Kroes accused EU member states of making Europeans

who live outside cities second-class citizens by failing toadopt a coherent spectrum policy.

Millions share my frustration

every day

She said that new data released by the Commissionunderlines her argument that the current framework forspectrum assignment in Europe is inadequate. The datasuggests Europe has fallen behind in rolling out 4G net-works.

She argued that mobile operators have difculty de-veloping an EU-wide mobile strategy because there are28 different regulators. According to the Commissionsgures, spectrum rights are generally four times moreexpensive in the EU than in the USA. And the variationbetween EU states is so great that a company can endup paying 50 times as much in one country as it does inanother for the same amount of spectrum.

Kroes also argued that the high costs of acquiring

spectrum rights was preventing telcos from being able toinvest the 27 billion that Brussels estimates is neededfor network upgrades.

The EU is teetering on the edge of network collapse,she said. Global mobile trafc is predicted to grow 66 percent a year, smart devices are everywhere and peoplewant to watch video on those devices. Without morespectrum being made available the whole thing fallsapart.

The Commissions gures suggested that Europe ac-counts for barely ve per cent of 4G connections globallyand that there is almost no access to 4G networks in rural

areas of Europe. She made a comparison between 4Gaccess in Europe and in the US. In the US, 90 per cent ofpeople have 4G access, whereas only 25 per cent of Eu-ropean citizens have access to 4G in their home towns.

Im on the side of the citizens, the taxpayers, the voters,who just want their phones and tablets to work, she said.Its frustrating when my phone stops working in Brusselsbecause we only have 3G. Millions share my frustrationevery day.

The new data and announcement comes shortly afterKroes reluctantly decided to grant extensions to 11 of themember states who had not assigned the 800 MHz bandto mobile carriers by the January 2014 deadline set by

the Commission. She has also launched enforcement ac-tion against two of the countries.

The Commission will issue proposals in September forchanging the spectrum licensing framework; PolicyTrack-erreported on a leaked version of these proposals lastweek.

______________________________________________Jul 23, 2013

Kroes says member statesare too slow on 800 MHzband


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The European Commission has reluctantly

granted extensions to nine EU memberstates who wanted more time to assignspectrum in the 800 MHz band.

By Toby Youell

...the most common reasons

for missing the deadline

were border zone issues

and complications with

reallocating broadcasting

spectrum

European Commission vice president Neelie Kroes criti-cised EU member states for failing to assign the 800 MHzband for mobile broadband by January 2013.

She said: This is a pragmatic and nal concession.Every delay in releasing spectrum hurts our economy andfrustrates citizens.

A spokesperson added that it takes a lot of convincingto get member states to coordinate on this issue becausethey have traditionally been reluctant to coordinate onwhat is considered a sovereignty issue.

Fourteen EU member states had not assigned the 800MHz band for mobile broadband by January 2013, the

deadline laid down by a Commission decision from 2010.Brussels has now granted an extension to nine of the14 countries. So far, 11 others have managed to assignspectrum in the band to mobile broadband operators.

The Commission refused to extend the deadline forSlovenia and Slovakia, arguing that the delays in thosecountries were due to the organisation of the authorisa-tion process rather than exceptional circumstances thatwould allow Brussels to grant a derogation. A spokesper-son for Kroes told PolicyTrackerthat if there is no actionfrom the two countries then they risk court action andultimately nes. He said that this would be a fair thing forthe 11 member states that did meet the deadline.

Belgium and Estonia did not meet the January deadlinebut did not bother asking for a derogation while Greece,Latvia and the Czech Republic require additional evalua-tion by the Commission. Bulgaria has informed Brusselsof the continued use of the band for public security anddefence purposes.

Postponements have been agreed for Spain, Cyprus,Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Austria, Poland, Romania andFinland.

A spokesperson for Kroes told PolicyTrackerthat themost common reasons for these EU member states miss-ing the deadline were border zone issues and complica-

tions with reallocating broadcasting spectrum.The Commission said that phones considered to be es-

sential devices by European citizens are not fully func-

tional in Europe because of the EUs failure to harmoniseits mobile broadband spectrum. The Commission arguesthat the lack of harmonisation forces manufacturers toleave out the appropriate radio chips.

A spokesperson said: the economic imperatives aregreater now than when the RSPP [radio spectrum policyprogramme] was agreed and we are condent that mem-ber states will see the value of our single market propos-als for further coordination.

This decision is the latest stage in the European Com-missions efforts to harmonise mobile spectrum acrossthe EU. In a statement, Neelie Kroes said spectrumreform would be a centrepiece of the CommissionsSeptember proposal for a telecoms single market.PolicyTrackerreported on a leaked draft of the report lastFriday.______________________________________________Jul 30, 2013

Give 700 MHz to mobile, butprovide an incentive for TVviewersThe PolicyTracker survey showsoverwhelming support for moving TV outof the 700 MHz band, but also recognition

that viewers will need a reason to buy newequipment.

By Martin Sims

The most obvious nding from the PolicyTrackerTV in600 MHzsurvey is that 76 per cent of respondents saidyes, TV should be moved out of the 700 MHz band, free-ing this up for mobile. Only two people answered no tothis question, and of the three others one called for TVto be moved out of 600 as well.

Another said he lived in the US where we are alreadymoving away from over-the-air broadcasting and likelywill use the entire UHF band for broadband mobile.

In general, PolicyTracker

readers showed themselves

to be pragmatists rather than

futurologists

Here at PolicyTracker, what struck us about digitalswitchover (DSO) was the lack of complaints. For manyyears the political classes obsessed about the grannyfactor whod want to be the politician who left grandmawithout TV? But when DSO came around the problem

failed to materialise. In the Netherlands, UK, Finland andSweden we heard of very few viewer complaints, perhapsbecause the enormous resources channelled into public


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August 2013

information campaigns had made people buy new set-topboxes or new TVs.

The benets of DSO were also obvious more chan-nels, but also more interactivity, and arguably betterpicture quality. But moving TV to 600 is likely to requireequipment that runs DVB-T2 and MPEG4 to maintain thesame services. Any additional viewer benets are far lessobvious: more HDTV perhaps, but maybe just the sameamount.

Our survey respondents seemed to have similar con-cerns: 52 per cent thought this second switchover would

be more difcult than the move from analogue to digitalTV, although the remainder thought it would be easier orabout the same level of difculty.

Of course there is no problem if people have boughtsets which will run DVB-T2 and MPEG4 by the time thissecond switchover happens. But only 14 per cent of peo-

ple thought almost all viewers would have these sets by2018, so the consensus seems to be that a move to 600MHz would inconvenience signicant numbers.

The replacement cycles for TVs are falling, according tothe latest research, and the global average is now aboutseven years. You might therefore expect that two thirds ofconsumers would have replaced sets of their own accordby 2018 and that many of these new sets would haveDVB-T2 and MPEG4, particularly as the deadline ap-proached.

On the other hand the prevalence of 600 MHz-ready

sets would depend on the effectiveness of public aware-ness campaigns and advance warning given to manu-facturers. Uncertainty about these variables may explainthe wide range of answers given (see p5, top graph), withmost responses in the mid-range.

Even though there was widespread acceptance that


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many sets would have been replaced, the majority of re-

spondents still felt the process required an extra push. 71per cent said viewers would need an incentive to move tonew sets.

What should this incentive be? There were two popularanswers, additional High Denition programming andsubsidised equipment. Only eight per cent of those reply-ing felt more Standard Denition channels would temptthe consumer. (see p5, bottom graph)

One reply suggested that the use of LTE Broadcastcould also be an incentive as it could allow viewers toreceive content on the move, in addition to the traditionalconsumption of linear TV in homes and ofces.

If equipment is to be subsidised, who should pay for it?Over a fth of respondents felt there should be no sub-sidy, and the viewer should pay for the cost of the newequipment. But as the graph above shows, 67 per centfelt that either governments or mobile operators shouldcover the consumers costs.

No gee-whizzeryIn general, PolicyTracker readers showed themselves to

be pragmatists rather than futurologists, concerned withthe practicalities of re-allocating bands rather than lookingfurther ahead. One US respondent was the exception,arguing that by 2018, there will be no television broad-

casting; people will download their choice of program-ming from the Internet As tablets and e-readers multi-ply, they will be the new TVs.

The lack of similar responses may reect the largernumber of Europeans among the sample, or perhaps itis an example of what is sometimes called Amaras Law:We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in theshort run and underestimate the effect in the long run.

The TV in 600 MHz survey was lled in anonymouslyby 21 people.

Jul 15, 2013

Germany to release 700 MHzband for mobile broadbandConsultation documents from the Germanregulator reveal its intention to carry out aseries of auctions for several bands, startingin 2014.

by Toby Youell

Jochen Homann: underlyingour proposal is the desire

to provide the resources for

mobile broadband at the

earliest possible stage

BNetzA has released a consultation document and apolicy paper that set out its plans for Germanys futureuse of spectrum. The document indicates the regulatorsintention to have an early deployment of the 700 MHz

band for mobile broadband.BNetzA plans to start auction procedures in 2014 for

spectrum in the 900 and 1800 MHz bands. This spectrumis currently assigned to GSM operators but licences aredue to expire in 2016. The document proposes that afterthose auctions, further spectrum should also be madeavailable to broadband in the 700 MHz and 1.5 GHzbands, potentially holding an auction in 2015 for 1.5 GHzand after 2015 for 700 MHz.

A block of spectrum in the 900 MHz band would bereserved for each of the four current operators to ensureuninterrupted mobile broadband service in rural areas.

The president of BNetzA, Jochen Homann, said that un-derlying our proposal is the desire to provide the resourcesfor mobile broadband at the earliest possible stage.


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The consultation paper, known as Project 2016, incorpo-rates ideas from a discussion paper called Mobile Media2020. It says 75 per cent of households should have ac-cess to bandwidth of at least 50 Mbit/s by 2014 and thereshould be full coverage by 2018. The European Commis-sion, as part of its so-called digital agenda, wants down-load rates of 30 Mbps for all European citizens by 2020.

The documents say that use of spectrum generallyshould be efcient and interference-free and that fairand reasonable compensation should be made availablefor incumbent users of bands that are in high demand.It estimates that 10 per cent of TV channels will have tostop broadcasting because mobile broadband will occupyspectrum currently allocated to broadcasting. The consul-tation closes on October 4 this year.

Germanys rst auction of spectrum suitable for LTE,in the 800 MHz band in 2010, raised 4.38 billion forthe German government. Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone,

Telefonica and KPN all secured spectrum.A source close to one of the telcos told PolicyTracker

that they did not welcome the prospects of early auctionsbecause they want to invest their money elsewhere. Thebody representing the mobile industry, the GSM Associa-tion, did not comment.______________________________________________Jul 30, 2013

PMSE users worried aboutGerman plans for 700 MHz

bandGerman plans to auction 700 MHz spectrumas part of a second digital dividendcompletely neglect the interests of theprogramme-making and special events(PMSE) community, according to DrKlaassen, co-president of the Associationof Professional Wireless ProductionsTechnologies (APWPT).

By Dugie Standeford

German regulator BNetzA has proposed setting asideno more than 96 MHz for wireless microphones and hassuggested several alternate bands, but Klaassen saidmost of those frequencies wont work for PMSE. Evenif they are combined, they wont amount to the 96 MHzneeded for just the daily PMSE productions.

PMSE suffers from a low

profile among spectrum

regulators

The PMSE community is also worried about the situa-tion in France, which also plans to release the 700 MHzband for mobile broadband services, he said.

PMSE users will potentially lose half of the spectrumthey currently have following the rst digital dividend, saidKlaassen, export sales manager and regulatory specialistfor equipment maker Audio-Technica. In general, the sec-tors spectrum is diminishing, and compensation for thecost of moving to new bands is minimal, with the industryitself is expected to bear most expenses.

Moreover, most PMSE users are not aware of what ishappening because the spectrum discussion takes placeat CEPT or some other high level, Klaassen said. Mostwireless microphone users become aware of the problemonly when they encounter interference from 4G services.

German PMSE users held a general licence in the790862 MHz digital dividend band but are now restrictedto 710790 MHz, Klaassen said. Plans in Germany and

other countries to auction the 700 band will leave PMSEusers high and dry. So far there is no information onhow wireless microphone users who invested in movingto the 710-790 MHz band will be compensated, he said.

Disrespecting Lnder policy?Germanys federal structure means its states (Lnder)

participate, through the Bundesrat, in Germanys na-tional legislative and administrative process. At a meet-ing in November 2012, the Bundesrat noted resolutionsadopted in 2009 and 2010 which limited Germanysdigital dividend to the 790862 MHz frequency range.

The legislative body decided on 6 June to change thefrequency regulation in favour of use by wireless micro-phones, and compensated PMSE users for the spectrumlost to the digital dividend by setting aside spectrum inthe 14521492 MHz range. The activities of the nationalregulator BNetzAs, however, do not seem to respect thepolicy decisions of the Bundesrat, APWPT said.

Wireless microphones could use 1.21.6 GHz frequen-cies but the band must be globally accessible becauseno equipment manufacturer will produce microphones forjust one country, Klaassen said.

Disaster for major events

BNetzAs strategy paper for the 700 MHz band listsseveral alternative bands for PMSE, but Klaassen saideach one has problems, and together they wont make 96MHz of spectrum available. The APWPT position is thatany further erosion of the UHF band will harm the PMSEindustry. BNetzA is completely neglecting our interestand its proposal will be a disaster for sports, concerts,cultural festivals and other events, he said.

France and Germany are rumoured to be in bilateraltalks on implementing the 700 MHz second digital divi-dend as soon as possible, Klaassen said. (The Frenchgovernment conrmed last month that it will allocate the

band to mobile broadband). He fears that doing so willopen debate at WRC-15 on reallocating the rest of theUHF band.


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August 2013

That wont be as much of a problem for TV distributionin countries such as the Netherlands that are well-cabledas it will for Mediterranean EU countries that are moredependent on digital terrestrial TV (DTT), he said. DTT iswhat most politicians use to get their messages out, andtheyre about to shut themselves off by making it impos-sible for PMSE to cover elections and other major eventssimilar in scope to the London 2012 Olympics, he said.

Secondary status unhelpfulPMSE suffers from a low prole among spectrum

regulators, Klaassen said. Some are aware of it but donot know how to deal with it. Some say that because itsa secondary status service which can use spectrum aslong as it does not interfere with primary users and mustsolve interference problems itself there is no need totake any action. PMSEs status is not helping to solvethe issue, he said.

Given their status, wireless microphone users are easyto ignore, but that does not resolve the situation, Klaas-sen said. Either PMSEs status or the conditions of itssecondary usage must be changed, or regulators mustcome up with at least two frequency bands that donthave technical drawbacks for wireless microphones. TheAPWPT now plans to inform all the major sports associa-tions, cultural festivals and others that under Germanysplan their events will be impossible to produce, he added.

Asked at a European spectrum management confer-ence in June what the future of PMSE might be if the700 MHz band is given to wireless services, Brussels

regulator Roberto Viola said the European Commissionis not jumping to conclusions about the band becauseits highly used by many communities in Europe, includ-ing PMSE. The Radio Spectrum Policy Group is workingon the issue and the Commission will rely strongly onits advice, he said. Viola, who is the deputy director ofDG Connect, said hes sure a solution will be found. TheCommission knows about the problem with current usersin the band and does not want to jeopardise their uses.______________________________________________Jul 17, 2013

Spectrum usage study

faces questions aboutmethodologyAn eagerly-awaited Brussels-commissionedstudy has concluded that demand for

spectrum will exceed supply in the mainmobile bands within 10 years, but more thanhalf of the other bands will not be fully used.

By Toby Youell

A study into demand for spectrum in Europe has found

that by 2022 there will not be enough supply to meetgrowing demand in 45 per cent of available bandwidth.However, this conclusion was tempered by the uncer-tainty of the data it used.

... demand for 800 MHzof beachfront spectrum

between 400 MHz and 1200

MHz is likely to exceed supply

by 2022

The ndings of the study, Analysis of technology trends,future needs and demand for spectrum, were presentedby Analysys Mason in Brussels on 11 July. The studyforms part of an attempt to create a radio spectrum inven-

tory for EU member states, which is one of the objectivesof the European Commissions Radio Spectrum PolicyProgramme (RSPP).

The presentation said that in the face of an increasein demand for spectrum, it was best to plan spectrumallocation carefully rather than putting off the debate.However, the discussion after the presentation focussedon the methodology of the study rather than its ndings.

The presentation stated that the 700 MHz band will bewidely used for broadcasting and that mobile broadbanduse will increase, although this will be somewhat miti-gated by Wi-Fi ofoading. It noted that there are large

differences between separate countries.It noted that demand for 800 MHz of beachfront spec-trum between 400 MHz and 1200 MHz is likely to exceedsupply by 2022. In total, use of 2500 MHz of spectrumbetween 400 MHz and 5850 MHz is likely to exceed itsdesignations.

The Analysys Mason consultants told delegates theyused their own data and data from a separate study un-dertaken by WIK-Consult because of the alleged uncer-tainty of the ofcial source of European spectrum data,EFIS (ECO Frequency Information System). As part ofthe RSPP, WIK-Consult had undertaken a study in 2012to determine the technical and socio-economic efciency

of spectrum use.Scott Marcus, a director of WIK-Consult, told Poli-

cyTrackerthat it was entirely appropriate for the AnalysysMason study to draw on the WIK analysis because thetwo studies are designed to complement each other.However, he said that WIKs study concentrated on ana-lysing the supply of spectrum, rather than demand.

After a question from a radio astronomy expert, and anunclear response from Analysys Mason, Marcus ex-plained to the workshop in Brussels that the WIK studyhad treated passive services like radio astronomy differ-ently from active ones. Technical efciency for a service

like radio astronomy cannot be measured in terms of theamount of trafc transmitted in the band. For a passiveservice like radio astronomy, if the band is quiet, it is be-


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August 2013

ing used as it is supposed to be used.Marcus said that the WIK analysis was careful not to ap-

ply a simplistic interpretation to the level of trafc in bandsallocated to services like the military and PPDR (publicprotection and disaster relief). Analogously, services likethe military and PPDR can have very different levels ofusage depending on what is going on. The level of useduring a disaster, or during military exercises, can bevery different from the level of use during quiet times. Forthe band to be lightly used during quiet periods does notnecessarily imply inefciency.

EFIS is an extremely valuable

resource

WIKs study made extensive use of EFIS data. EFIS wasset up in 2002 to allow the public to research frequencyusage. Since January 2008, EU member states have beenrequired to submit information about their spectrum use toEFIS. Analysys Mason argued that member states weresubmitting inconsistent and incomplete information.

Marcus told PolicyTrackerthat he felt Analysys Masonwas unduly critical of EFIS. He accepted that EFIS doesnot contain all the information the spectrum inventory will

ultimately need, and that there is a need to improve thecross-country consistency of EFIS data. This is the rea-son why the WIK study advocated a simple and straight-forward mapping of the existing ITU-based categories ofuse to fourteen categories for the purposes of analysis.

However, EFIS is an extremely valuable resource, Mar-cus said, and stakeholders are right to insist that the newspectrum inventory should avoid needless duplication ofgood data already available on the system.

Thomas Weber, from the European CommunicationsOfce (ECO), argued that EFISs data was reasonablygood, although it could be improved. He said that An-alysys Mason may have misunderstood how to interpret

the data.Commenting on a slide with data about Germany, one

member of the delegation from the country said weknow that there are some inaccuracies (in the informa-tion presented in the slide). The French regulator pointedout that French law forbade them from disclosing certainusages of spectrum and also questioned whether theconsultants used all of the available sources of data.

______________________________________________

Source: Analysys Mason


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Jul 09, 2013

ITU discussion paper raisesconcerns about long-term

future of TVWSBut those in the TV white spaces (TVWS)

industry are condent that changes in theUHF bands will not leave them short ofspectrum.

By Toby Youell

Some of the nest minds and deepest pockets on theplanet are banking on a TV white space revolution, but adiscussion paper presented by the ITU to its Global Sym-

posium for Regulators suggested that digital terrestrialtelevision (DTT) may stand in its way.

... there may be costly legal

battles between new non-

broadcasting primary users

and TVWS users

The discussion paper was prepared for the GlobalSymposium for Regulators that was held at the beginning

of July in Warsaw, Poland. If regulators allow operators tobuild xed or mobile infrastructure to access unlicensed

white space spectrum before a programme for DTT hasbeen completed, the paper said, then there may be un-certain levels of future availability of channels for TVWSfor their operations.

The UHF band is undergoing signicant changes withrespect to the identication of additional allocations for

the mobile service, namely IMT, due to the steep increasein demand for mobile broadband bandwidth, the ITU toldPolicyTracker. Such changes seek internationally har-monized spectrum solutions for the long-term, from whichinteroperability and economies of scales benets can beobtained, especially to provide wide area coverage inlarge developing regions and rural areas.

The discussion paper covered a number of issues that areallocation of spectrum may raise for the TVWS industry.For example, an infrastructure of base stations providinga xed (and in the future, a mobile) service to TVWS de-vices may require a costly adaptation to move to another

part of the band. In addition, more TV channels would bebroadcast within a tighter band, so there would be lesswhite space available to ll, as a result of the allocation ofthe digital dividend to the mobile service.

The discussion paper asked how a lack of security oftenure in spectrum terms (for the proposed wide areaoperation of TVWS) could have an impact on the futurescalability and reliability of a system facing growingbandwidth demands and diminishing spectrum availabil-ity. Furthermore, if a future re-allocation were to movebroadcasting from its current bands and the infrastructureconnecting TVWS devices is not able to follow it, then

there may be costly legal battles between new non-broadcasting primary users and TVWS users.


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August 2013

White space possibilitiesAndrew Stirling, a spectrum consultant who helped or-

ganised the Cambridge white space trial and is currentlyworking for Microsoft, told PolicyTracker that the oppositewas true. He said that on the contrary, TVWS devices arebest placed to adapt to changing bandplans.

He believes the most efcient way of allocating increas-ingly scarce spectrum is through dynamic spectrum ac-cess (DSA). He envisions a system in which devices usea database to determine which channels of spectrum areavailable to use. The device could then log in to availablespectrum on a short term basis. The diagram below, pre-sented at the recent Spectrum Management Conferencein Brussels by UK spectrum regulator Ofcom, shows howthis would work in practice.

Stirling said that if the channels that are available to usechanged because of replanning, it would be relativelyeasy for the database to simply update that picture and

the devices would know which frequencies to use rela-tively quickly.

Its relatively fast to propagate through changes, hetold PolicyTracker. It will have the potential for radicalinnovation in the future when devices can automaticallydetect that spectrum is available to use and get on withusing it without being involved with licensing auctions.

...we need spectrum sharing

to avoid the brute force of

clearance and the cost and

delay that goes with that

Everythings going to be alright

In order to be able to toggle freely between disparatebands, devices will have to be equipped to deal with anarray of spectrum. Currently, it is thought that TVWSdevices will have to work between 470 and 790 MHz andpossibly 3.5 GHz. If regulators allocate a wider range ofspectrum, then these bands would need to be built in toTVWS devices. Stirling toldPolicyTracker that while thiswould involve a certain cost, it would be mitigated byeconomies of scale achieved through European harmoni-

sation. Any extra cost would be passed on to consumers.A separate problem in the future could be that a smaller

and more congested broadcasting band will lead to ashortage of white spaces for TVWS devices to exploit.Stirling admits this is a possibility, but says that regulatorsshould address this by reserving a band below 1 GHzfor unlicensed spectrum. He compares such a move tothe current allocation for programme making and specialevents (PMSE) devices.

For Stirling, these problems are overshadowed by theopportunities TVWS present. It could remove entry bar-riers to the telecommunications sector by allowing rms

to bypass the licensing process; enable the internet ofthings to emerge; produce Super Wi-Fi for isolated com-munities; and make sure that existing spectrum is used

effectively. He doesnt think that these benets should bejeopardised by speculation about a potential reallocationthat is several years away.

For example, digital TV was introduced into the UKmarket in 1998, but the 4G auction that capitalised onthe digital dividend was only concluded this spring. His at-titude is that it is best to improve internet connectivity forthe time being by using white spaces and then deal withcongestion from a second digital dividend whenever thathappens (if it does happen).

He told PolicyTracker: we need spectrum sharing toavoid the brute force of clearance and the cost and delaythat goes with that.

Ofcom does not want to stand in the way of TVWSRegulators who think they will have this problem in the

future can look to the UK. Its regulator, Ofcom, has beena cheerleader for TVWS technology since its inception. It

helped organise a major test of TVWS in Cambridge lastyear and has lobbied for a harmonised European regula-tory approach to the technology.

Ofcoms director of spectrum markets Graham Loutheven went so far as to tell a conference in Brussels in lateJune that dynamic spectrum access could be as trans-formative for how devices use spectrum as the internetprotocol was for the development of the world wide web.

A spokesman for the regulator toldPolicyTracker: Whileany potential release of the 700 MHz band would reducethe total size of the TV white space band, it is too early toestimate accurately what the impact could be on the pos-

sible availability of white space.He also said that no nal decision has yet been madeon the 700 MHz band and that TVWS devices could usethe band throughout the clearance process right up untilthe spectrum is released for new uses.

As it does not need to be a primary user, TVWS technol-ogy is exible and dynamic in the way it accesses spec-trum. Today that seems like its greatest attribute; but as italso makes TVWS vulnerable to regulatory decisions onspectrum reallocation, in the future that may seem like itsgreatest weakness.______________________________________________Jul 08, 2013

Many potential TVWSapplications still lackbusiness modelsLast summer, PolicyTrackers majorindustry survey on TV white spaces (TVWS)found there was a lack of clarity aboutthe business models for many potential

applications in TVWS. A year on, rural

broadband, machine communications andlong-range WiFi are still among the most-


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discussed opportunities, but while the case

for TVWS-based broadband is starting tobe made, business models for several otherpotential uses remain uncertain.

By Catherine Viola

Rural broadband one of first commercial applicationsRural broadband has long been touted as a key ap-

plication for TVWS, and it is of no surprise that it is oneof the rst services to move towards commercialisation.TVWS offers several benets for rural broadband service,especially:

Excellent signal propagation, which supports cover-age of large areas and non-line-of-sight operation inchallenging terrain, such as mountains, forests, or

over water Typically, a high availability of TVWS in rural and

remote areas TVWS broadband has the potential to revitalise the

economy of small communities and sustain theirfuture existence in a technologically advanced world

The business case for deploying rural broadband is wellunderstood, hinging on factors such as population densityand customers willingness to pay for the service pro-vided. Taking the cost of bandwidth out of the equation byusing unlicensed TVWS helps the business case, which

is notoriously challenging using licensed spectrum.An alternative such as LTE has an expensive, reoccur-ring cost model that compromises the value of a networkand can limit the extent of deployment, according toCarlson Wireless, a specialist in broadband services forunderserved communities.

With TVWS, businesses can own their networksthrough one-time equipment purchases which, in mostcases, can be less than the initial cost of an LTE installa-tion before recurring costs, says the companys presi-dent and chief executive Jim Carlson. This means thatbusinesses can deploy to more locations as needed,which adds even more value.

PolicyTrackers report identied a huge potential forTVWS-based broadband to help bridge the digital dividein developing regions, such as Africa, Latin America andsouth-east Asia. Somewhere around ve billion peopleglobally are unable to access existing forms of broadbandInternet, said Carlson. These include underserved loca-tions in high-density areas that lack telephony resources(i.e. copper wiring, bre cables, etc), as well as rural andremote markets.

Both types of communities are ideal candidates forTV white space broadband, said Carlson. Access to theInternet could benet these communities in many areas,

including healthcare, education, and business, he added.In the past year, sub-Saharan Africa has become a hot-

bed of TVWS activity, with trials ongoing or under discus-

sion in Cameroon, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Sen-egal, South Africa and Tanzania. IT giants Google andMicrosoft are both sponsoring trials , most of which centreon rural broadband applications (see table overleaf).

In Kenya, Microsoft has teamed up with the govern-ment and Indigo Telecom to launch a TVWS pilot target-ing communities without access to either broadband orelectricity. The trial uses solar-powered base stations todeliver broadband access to support commerce, educa-tion, healthcare and the delivery of government services.Adaptrum supplies the white space radios.

African TVWS broadband pilots

Country Trial scope Project partners

Kenya

Broadband connectivity forcommunities without electric-

ity or broadband, targeting

applications in commerce,

education, healthcare, andgovernment services

Microsoft, Adap-

trum, Indigo

Telecom, TENET

Malawi

Moving towards trial of

Carlson Wireless Rural Con-nect TVWS solution, after

initial studies. Affordable rural

broadband a key issue, as

Malawi population predomi-

nately rural (85%)

University of

Malawi, Malawiregulator MACRA,

International Cen-

tre for Theoretical

Physics in Trieste,

Carlson Wireless

Nigeria

WaveTek planning trial based

on Carlson Wireless technol-

ogy, for which it has distribu-tion rights

WaveTek

South

Africa

Six-month trial to demon-strate affordable wireless

broadband using TVWS for

ten schools in Western Cape

area

Google, Carlson

Wireless/Neul

South

Africa

Trial being planned to test

rural broadband using TVWSin Limpopo

Microsoft, Council

for Scientific and

Industrial Research(CSIR)

Tanzania

Pilot to provide affordable

wireless broadband access

to students and staff at the

University of Dar es Salaam

Microsoft, IS Uhu-

ruOne, COSTECH

Source: PolicyTracker

Our white spaces initiative in Kenya is a great exampleof a specic business model in action and has servedto demonstrate the commercial feasibility of deliveringbroadband access using white spaces, Microsoft toldPolicyTracker.

The potential benets of TVWS for rural broadband arenot just limited to the developing world. In California, Carl-son Wireless and local wireless ISP Cal.net have startedrolling out a TVWS network to bring broadband connec-tivity to unserved customers in El Dorado County.

The project comprises multiple base stations and

aims to demonstrate the potential of TVWS for deliveringbroadband to rural Americans. Carlson Wirelesss RuralConnect solution is currently based on Neuls white space


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radio technology, but will in future support the emergingIEEE white space standards for rural broadband (802.22)and extended-range WiFi (802.11af, also known asSuper-WiFi or White-Fi).

TVWS broadband has the potential to revitalise theeconomy of these small communities and sustain theirfuture existence in a technologically advanced world,explained Carlson. And because TVWS networks requireminimal infrastructure, this can all be done without harm-ing the natural environment.

Business models less clear for other applicationsBeyond TVWS-based broadband access, there is no

shortage of potential applications for TVWS but theirbusiness models are, at least for now, somewhat lesstransparent.

Microsoft doesnt expect this to remain the case for toolong. We believe that a number of different business

models will emerge in this space over the next few years,as companies developing in this space introduce newproducts and services, the company said. In the upcom-ing year, we foresee additional commercial pilot projectsthat seek to validate other types of business models andscenarios.

... it is too early to say which

will be the most attractive

and sustainable TVWS

business cases

A case in point could be Super-WiFi based on802.11af, which can enable wireless broadband hotspotslarge enough to cover whole campuses or even townsas well as being deployed for rural broadband. Thanks tothe superior propagation of TVWS signals, the technologycan also boost indoor coverage compared to WiFi at 2.4GHz.

But although there is now prototype equipment basedon the draft 802.11af standard (which is due to be rati-ed in 2014), there are still question marks over how thistechnology can best be used for commercial services.

The business models are not so well understood forSuper-WiFi as for rural broadband, said William Webb,the co-founder of Neul.

Webb, who is now chief executive of the WeightlessSpecial Interest Group (SIG) which is harmonising NeulsWeightless technology as a global standard, said it wasunclear whether the technology would be deployed toimprove in-home wireless coverage or provide urbanhotspots.

Peter Stanforth, co-founder and CTO of TVWS data-base administrator Spectrum Bridge sees in-home cover-age and rural broadband as the main potential uses for

802.11af, but said it is uncertain which will prevail. Untilthe 802.11af chipsets are commercially available, it isunclear how this will play out, he remarked.

For Neul, TVWS are ideally suited to providing low-cost,low-data-rate communications for the billions of con-nected devices that are predicted to emerge over the nextdecade. The company has been a leading force behindthe development of the Weightless M2M (machine-to-machine) standard for TVWS, version 1.0 of which wasratied in April 2013.

The technology has been deployed in several trials,including in Cambridge, UK, where it demonstrated smartrefuse management. Neul has also showcased the useof Weightless for smart meter connectivity. Webb expectsWeightless chips to start becoming available in volume bythe end of this year, which he said will open the way forlarger-scale trials of M2M applications.

But while the M2M concept is well understood, it is hardto predict the volumes, according to Webb. Nor is it clearwho will deploy the Weightless networks. It is still openwhether there will be one national network on which all

applications reside or multiple private systems, coveringsmart cities, oil reneries and so on, said Webb.

While Weightless technology has been optimised formachine communications, it is not the only TVWS tech-nology that can support M2M uses. Spectrum Bridgestrial and subsequent commercial deployment in Wilming-ton, US includes various smart city applications, includingremote water and wetland monitoring and management.Stanforth explained that the TVWS network eliminatedthe costs associated with driving or boating to the moni-toring stations to collect the data required by the environ-mental protection agency.

The rst generation white space radios are moreexpensive than the alternatives, but the total cost ofownership is still better, said Stanforth. All equipmenthas been bought by Wilmington County and justied ona return on investment (ROI) in no more than 12 months.Some applications have an ROI in weeks or months,and these are repeatable in towns and cities across thecountry, he added.

Spectrum Bridge is also supporting a technology for low-power broadcast content distribution in TVWS from MeldTechnology. The application uses a cellular-like broadcastdistribution system to enable content to be localised in avery granular fashion. This allows, for example, specic

TV broadcast in a stadium, or a shopping mall, or even ina school or church, explained Stanforth.

Still early daysWhile it is too early to say which will be the most at-

tractive and sustainable TVWS business cases, a timelycompletion of TVWS technology standards, coupled withan emergence (as seems likely) of multi-regional regula-tion harmonised around database-controlled dynamicspectrum access, should create the right conditions forattractive TVWS business models to develop and mature.

I dont think the business models are proven yet and it

may take another 12-18 months, said Stanforth. Avail-ability of spectrum in more countries is key. The radiosare relatively expensive today, so they are not economi-


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cal enough for some business models. As second andthird generation radios get out there with more siliconand fewer discrete components, the cost will come down,making more business models work.______________________________________________Jul 08, 2013

FCC incentive auction taskforce issues progress reportThe FCCs Incentive Auction Task Force isworking steadily towards a 2014 auction,according to task force chief Gary Epstein.

By Dugie Standeford

Among other things, the FCC (Federal Communications

Commission) is grappling with the band plan and how tomove broadcasters who choose to remain on-air to newchannels, he said in the groups rst progress report.Next steps include developments in channel repacking,further coordination talks with Canada and Mexico, andefforts to persuade broadcasters to pilot-test sharingprojects, he said.

Commissioner Rosenworcel

said the FCC should hold a

series of public hearings on

incentive auctions

Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, however, saidthe agency should engage more with stakeholders andbroadcasters, get a 600 MHz band plan in place by theend of September and reach a conclusion on undisputedauction issues.

Since the Spectrum Act authorising the incentive auc-tion was enacted, FCC commissioners and staff havetaken part in over 150 related events, Epstein said.Among those were channel-sharing and reimbursementfund workshops, a conference exploring auction design

principles, a band plan workshop and numerous industryconferences. In February, the team sought public com-ment on new TV study software for evaluating coverageand interference, and is now evaluating the responses,he said.

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for the incentiveauction proposed multiple band plans, and there are nowover a dozen proposals in the public domain, Epsteinsaid. On broadcaster transition, the agency has soughta preliminary review of a range of unit costs for replacingequipment; where such equipment might come from andwhen; and the logistical challenges of having a limited

number of tower crews.The FCC is gathering internal data on the installed base

of equipment to gauge replacement costs and evaluating

whether broadcasters should receive payments before orafter transition and how to deal with public TV stations, hesaid. Its also exploring the tax implications of the variousreimbursement approaches.

Next steps

The FCC will release data and details of an approach fordetermining which channel assignments will be permis-sible in the repacking process that will take place afterbroadcasters vacate some channels, Epstein said. Theagency is trying to encourage broadcasters to test chan-nel sharing.

Staff-level meetings with Canadian and Mexican regula-tors will continue, as will high-level talks between actingFCC chairwoman Mignon Clyburn and ofcials in thosecountries, Epstein said. The FCC will also increase con-sultation with US industry.

The task force is working steadily to give the FCC

options for the auction design and rules, Epstein said.The goal is to create a record of input from the public andinterested parties to allow the Commission to approve anauction order this year and hold the broadcast incentiveauction in 2014.

We need to make progressThe report made clear that the FCC is at the early

stages of the complex but critical task of conductingwireless incentive auctions, said Rosenworcel. While itwould be better to have a full complement of commission-ers only three of the ve seats are lled now we have

a mandate from Congress and cannot delay, she said.We need to make progress.

...the FCC appears ready to

assign prices for the reverse

auction based on what staff

believe a station is worth

Rosenworcel urged the agency to focus on several ac-tivities in the near term. The FCC should hold a series ofpublic hearings on incentive auctions. Those events can

explore major aspects such as the reverse auction, chan-nel repacking, the forward auction and the transition pro-cess, she said. We could ask the hard questions. Whatsthe right balance of licensed and unlicensed spectrumunder the law? How do the forward and reverse auctionst together? How will we determine initial bids?

FCC outreach to broadcasters must also be targeted aswell as broad, Rosenworcel said. The task force should di-rectly reach out to every broadcaster in the top 30 US mar-kets, where mobile broadband needs are greatest. Therealso needs to be progress on the band plan, she said.All good deliberations must come to an end and the 600

MHz band plan should be in place by the end of the thirdquarter. Finally, she said, those auction aspects that arentin dispute should be dealt with and taken off the table.


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...SRD manufacturers

recognise they should make

manufacturing equipment

which is reasonably robust

to any residual interference

that might be coming into

the band

Ofcom said that it made this decision because it wantedto allocate spectrum for licence exempt devices ahead ofthe expected rollout of smart metering technology in late2014 and because it expected European harmonisationof the 870-876 MHz and 915-921 MHz bands for licenceexempt spectrum in the medium term.

However, it will wait until two technical reports onunlicensed spectrum and devices are issued by the

European Conference of Postal and TelecommunicationsAdministrations (CEPT) at the end of this year before itmakes a nal decision.

Ofcom expects the regulations covering use of thespectrum to be issued in spring 2014. Until that point, thebands will remain non-operational but will be availablefor scientic testing.

Ofcom reports that most respondents to the consulta-tion it launched in January showed support for spectrumto be allocated to licence exempt services. For example,industry group Intellect cited research suggesting smartmetering will have a 6.7 billion NPV (net present value)

benet to the UK.Silver Spring Networks is a company that manufacturessmart meters. Its European roll-out manager, SimonDunkley told PolicyTrackerthat his company was delight-ed by Ofcoms decision.

Big opportunities have been missed throughout Europeover the past 15 years so were very glad about the deci-sion, he said. Were very pleased that Ofcom is on thetrajectory that it is now on.

Interference from LTE?

However, there are fears that the 915-921 MHz bandwill be vulnerable to interference from future adjacent LTE

networks. Robert Horvitz, director at the Open SpectrumFoundation, told PolicyTrackerthat 4G networks are likelyto cause interference for non-licensed devices because oflax interface standards.

He said that LTE handsets should have better transmitlters and that the planned power limits for licence ex-empt use of bands adjacent to LTE networks may not beenough to overcome radio frequency noise spillover frommobile phones.

The impact of this noise on hearing assist systems,social alarms for people in fragile health, car safety com-munications, smart metering and smart grid services is

likely to grow over time, he said.Given the social and economic value of these unli-

censed systems, it is not enough to say they have no

right of non-interference, even though that is true. It isequally true that cellular licences do not convey the rightto pollute other nearby bands.

Dunkley said he was not worried about this phenome-non because his companys smart meters have very highnoise immunity.

He told PolicyTracker: SRD [short range device] manu-facturers recognise that they should make manufacturingequipment which is reasonably robust to any residualinterference that might be coming into the band.

The trouble is that the standard for the LTE equipmentis written in such a way that it is reasonably loose... (but)there is now a pragmatic dialogue going on between thetelecoms operators and manufacturers of these devicesso it is looking as if what probably will happen is that theLTE standard will be tightened.

A Vodafone spokesman told PolicyTrackerthat thecompany was not expecting Ofcoms move to create in-

terference problems. Were monitoring both the trial anddevelopment of technical parameters in Europe closelyand are condent that the eventual parameters will en-sure suitable protection of the mobile spectrum bands,he said.

Railways currently use GSM-R technology in 4 MHzbands immediately above the 870-876 and 915-921 MHz.Dunkley told PolicyTrackerthat he had undertaken testswith Siemens and Deutsche Bahn in Germany that theconditions under which potential interference betweenSRDs and GSM-R could occur are now understood.

However, the risk of interference does mean that, in

countries that roll out the extended band, SRDs will haveto blank out channels near busy railway stations andshunting yards. Horvitz told PolicyTrackerthat the needfor spectrum to be allocated to future ER-GSM technol-ogy is limited geographically and in any case has anuncertain future. ER-GSM refers to the small expansionbands that are currently being proposed for use on highspeed lines and large switching centres.

The 915-921 MHz band is currently used by the UKsnational weather service the Met Ofce for wind prol-ing radar (WPR). Ofcom has said it will prevent interfer-ence to this use by implementing exclusion zones forunlicensed devices around WPR devices. Dunkley told

PolicyTrackerthat there are only three WPR locations inthe UK, and one of them is on the Isle of Man.

Both Arqiva and JRC lobbied for 870-876 MHz to beallocated for Home Area Networks (HAN), but Ofcom de-cided against this. Dunkley said that there is a Europeantrend against specifying types of applications that cango into a particular band because doing so would makespectrum use inefcient.

______________________________________________


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Jul 22, 2013

Concerns raised over UKs

short-term HDTV assignment

Ofcom has decided to award part of the 600MHz band for terrestrial HDTV, but this is

only guaranteed for the next ve years.

By Toby Youell

The UK regulator has been accused of not being openabout a future HD spectrum crunch following its decisionto assign the 550-606 MHz band to Arqiva to provide highdenition TV (HDTV).

The public will doubtless

want faster, better mobile

services as well as lots of free

TV, but will they sacrifice

their TV for mobile?

The licence runs until 2026 but can be revoked with24 months notice. The minimum duration of the licenceis from now until December 2018. It is possible that thelicence will be revoked before 2026 in order to make

room in the 600 MHz band for DTT services that will havebeen displaced from the 700 MHz band to provide morespectrum for mobile broadband services.

The licences will allow DTT viewers to receive up to 10additional HD channels using DVB-T2 and MPEG4 tech-nology, which Ofcom says will deliver greater choice andquality for consumers.

Gordon Drury, an independent broadcast media profes-sional and consumer rights advocate, told PolicyTrackerthat there needs to be an open debate about a possibleloss of HDTV in the medium term. What happens to allof the then current DTT services when they have to bemoved out of 700 MHz? he said. There is a signicant

loss of spectrum that will constrict Freeview where isthere room for them all? Ofcom are not really being openabout this or perhaps they dont know either.

He also told PolicyTrackerthat consumers should beinformed about the need to have MPEG4/DVB-T2 de-vices in order to receive the new HD channels and that itwas good that Arqiva had staked a claim for DTT in thespectrum despite the risks of its availability in the future.This illustrates Arqivas and Freeviews condence in thisplatform, Drury said. The concern is not for the presentbut the future.

Drury is an advisor to UK consumer group Voice of the

Listener and Viewer, but spoke to us in a personal capacity.

The future is uncertain

Neither Arqiva nor Ofcom were sure as to whether thenew HDTV services will be moved to another band orpotentially cancelled altogether.

Arqiva told PolicyTrackerthat they did not have muchto say on the matter and that a decision on what wouldhappen after a future 700 MHz band re-allocation hadnot been made. The company emphasised that HDTVhas a future. We believe DTT will play an important rolein delivering TV for some time to come and to remaincompetitive will need to deliver a suite of HD channels, aspokesperson said. The 600 MHz announcement is animportant step in this direction.

Ofcom told PolicyTrackerthat the new multiplexes wouldoperate at least until the end of 2018. At some point afterthat, the DTT platform could be reorganised and the newHD channels could be incorporated into the platform, butthis is not clear at this stage, a spokesperson said.

Drury told PolicyTrackerthat it was important to have an

open debate about the issue. He said that the public mayprefer free HDTV over additional mobile services and thatit is the job of Ofcom and the UK government to balancethe needs of public and commercial services.

He also suggested that an open public debate wouldbe the best way to nd out what that balance should be.The public will doubtless want faster, better mobile ser-vices as well as lots of free TV, but will they sacrice theirTV for mobile? Some will, some wont, he said.______________________________________________Jul 29, 2013

Chinese government to issueLTE licences by the end ofthis yearThe governments move could help to boostthe growth of TD-LTE technology, but this

growth may be restricted to China.

By Toby Youell

The Premier of Chinas state council, Li Keqiang, has

announced that China is working towards its goal ofhaving a broadband China by issuing licences for 4Gtechnology, expanding the countrys 3G coverage andencouraging private capital to set up joint ventures withstate-owned rms.

TDD networks and TDD

handsets when integrated

with FDD networks and FDD

user devices do not work that

well


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18 PolicyTracker

August 2013

The state council is Chinas cabinet and Li Keqiang isthe second most powerful man in the country. The com-mitment to 4G may generate a boost for Chinas handsetmanufacturing sector, particularly for devices based onTD-LTE technology.

A source in the Chinese mobile phone industry toldPolicyTracker they believe the government has reserved190 MHz in the 2.6 GHz band for TD-LTE technology anda further 120 MHz in the 2.1 GHz and 1800 MHz bandsfor FD-LTE technology.

False economy of scale?The vice-minister of the Ministry of Industry and Infor-

mation Technology (MIIT), Shang Bing, said at a recentconference that the development of TD-LTE had entereda fast track phase.

The Chinese government will rmly support TD-LTEindustry development, and help create a favourable policy

and market environment, he said.More widespread use of LTE could bring down the price

of producing LTE handsets. China Mobile, the countrysbiggest mobile phone company, has invested heavily inTD-LTE technology. It has already built more than 22,0004G base stations across 15 Chinese cities and aims toexpand its network to 200,000 base stations in 100 citiesby the end of this year. The company has 703 millionsubscribers, making it the biggest mobile phone companyin the world.

However, Geoff Varrall, director of the frequency tech-nology consultancy RTT, doubts that this will have much

of an impact outside China.Opening up the spectrum for 4G might result in lowercost handsets that are locally designed and sourced inChina but I dont see the potential scale benets translat-ing across into other markets, he told PolicyTracker.

He said that the emergence of a Chinese 4G market isunlikely to disrupt global 4G manufacturing because theUS market is still dominant. Although it is a small mar-ket by volume (about four per cent of the world market)and getting relatively smaller over time it remains highby value (about 10 per cent of the world market) with thevalue share staying remarkably constant, he said.

He added that although the Chinese market has a high

volume, it is perceived as high risk and low value withexpensive sales and support costs.

He drew a comparison with Japanese Personal DigitalCellular (PDC) devices that used 1.5 GHz. Although al-locating spectrum to this technology did protect value forlocal vendors, the technology was little used outside ofJapan and local vendors lost out on international markets.

Harmony for FD-LTE and TD-LTE?

The Chinese government is also releasing spectrum forFD-LTE technology. China Mobiles two largest competi-tors, China Telecom and China Unicom, have said they

are planning to build a converged network based on bothstandards. China Telecoms chairman told Chinas ofcialnews agency that his company is stepping up efforts for

its LTE network trials. It is believed that the company willimplement an integrated operation of both FD-LTE andTD-LTE technologies.

However, Varrall said that this may not work well. Hetold PolicyTracker: TDD networks and TDD handsetswhen integrated with FDD networks and FDD userdevices do not work that well all that you have donewith TDD is move coexistence issues from the frequencydomain to the time domain and in many ways gettingtime domain coexistence to work is much harder than youmight expect, particularly in higher data rate networks.

Chinas state council also announced measures tosave energy consumption and increase internet access.MIIT estimates that consumption of ICT related productsincreased by 29 per cent in the last year. The market isexpected to be worth 3.2 trillion yuan ($522 billion) by2015.

The Chinese cabinet says it is taking action in order to

achieve an annual average increase of information con-sumption of 20 per cent between 2013 and 2015.______________________________________________Jul 02, 2013

Mexican regulator launchesinternational campaign onspectrum valuationMuddled and unpredictable spectrumauctions could become a thing of the past if

other nations sign up to a Memorandum ofUnderstanding being drawn up by Mexicanregulator Cofetel.

By Toby Youell

Luis Lucatero, the head of regulatory policy at Cofetel,told PolicyTrackerthat he had a long term plan to pre-vent money being sucked out of the telecoms industry byexcessive spectrum valuations.

Ruprecht Niepold said he

gets frustrated when he

hears politicians making

promises about the revenue

they expect from spectrum

auctions

Lucatero said countries that are very similar still tend tohave very different ways of valuing spectrum. It would be

good if spectrum valuation was a little bit more consist-ent, he said. We think it is very important to nd the rightbalance between spectrum valuation and investment in


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ments want to raise revenue.The advisor to the director general on spectrum policy

at the European Commission, Ruprecht Niepold, tolddelegates at the Spectrum Management Conference inBrussels last week that he still gets frustrated when hehears politicians making promises about the revenuethey expect to raise from spectrum auctions. This wasrecently the topic of public controversy in the UK and wasthe subject of a recent announcement by the Pakistanigovernment.______________________________________________

infrastructure. We want to make sure that the spectrumprices do not go out of control.

Beyond economic valuation?

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will supporta Cofetel research project to examine which valuationstrategies can maximise the greater good. Lucatero saidthe issues this might address include whether there wasany benet in having international licences and how spec-trum can be valued in non-economic terms.

Around ten countries have so far shown an interest inthe MoU. Lucatero is optimistic that he can recruit largeand inuential countries and said he would be making fur-ther efforts at the ITUs Global Symposium for Regulatorsin Warsaw this week. He emphasised that the campaignwas at an early stage and that more details will emergeas the process develops towards the end of this year.

Amit Nagpal and Lee Sanders, partners at Aetha Con-

sulting, told PolicyTrackerthat a desirable outcome fromthe research would be a similar method for valuation tothe one they advised UK and Belgian regulators to adopt.They suggest calculating an international benchmarkfrom global auction outcomes and reserve prices andthen scaling them for specic circumstances.

This would be validated by estimating the value of spec-trum to potential auction participants. They said it wasabsolutely vital to evaluate the wider benets of spectrumwhen considering alternative uses of it rather than justcomparing rms offering the same type of service.

They said that setting up sensible reserve prices makes

complete sense in order to avoid being left with unsoldspectrum, as has happened in recent auctions in Roma-nia and Australia.

The beginning of the end for spectrum auctions?Graham Friend, managing director at Coleago Con-

sulting, told PolicyTrackerthat auctions were becomingincreasingly less useful and that a standard approach tocharging for spectrum - as opposed to valuing it - wouldhave benets.

He said that seeing as spectrum is a valuable resource,governments should still charge for its use so that op-erators have an incentive to do something with it. He

said that a standard approach to determining the chargewould need to:

encourage the ongoing efcient use of spectrum; ensure spectrum is not left unused; provide transparency; and be simple, quick and low cost to implement.The choice of appropriate technique may well need to

vary from market to market and the specic implementa-tion may well also need to be market specic, he said. Asingle international standard is likely to be impractical butsome principles could probably be established. He saidthat regulators already value spectrum without using auc-

tions by using Administered Incentive Pricing.He said that regulators use auctions despite the fact that

they are not competitive because their masters govern-


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