European Regulators Approve 3G in the 900Mhz Bands

Europe is to modify its restriction on the use of the 900Mhz frequency band for just GSM services to permit WCDMA services in the same bands. The Council of Ministers followed the European Parliament in approving a proposal from the European Commission to modernise European legislation - the so-called GSM Directive - on the use of the radio spectrum needed for mobile services.

The renewed Directive will enter into force this October. National administrations will have six months to transpose the Directive and to implement the Decision so that the GSM spectrum bands are effectively made available for 3G.

"The GSM standard has been a success story for Europe, where it was born. By updating the GSM Directive, the EU has paved the way for a new generation of services and technologies where Europe can be a world leader," said EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding. "I would like to thank the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers for making this possible by swiftly agreeing to the reform of this very important piece of telecoms legislation. This reform will remove constraints on operators so that they can deploy new technologies in the GSM bands to develop high-speed mobile broadband services."

In November 2008, the European Commission proposed to share the airwaves allocated to mobile phones with other more advanced technologies, starting with UMTS. The proposal was approved by the European Parliament in May, and with today's final endorsement of the 27 EU Telecoms Ministers, the reformed Directive can now enter into force. The new rules also make it easier to adapt spectrum allocation in the 900 MHz frequency band to allow even newer 4th generation high-speed broadband technologies to be deployed.

Posted to the site on 27th July 2009