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Europe to Promote Sharing of Radio Spectrum
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The European Commission has unveiled plans to deal with the growth in mobile and wireless data traffic by enabling wireless technologies to share the use of the radio spectrum.
With new technologies it is possible to share radio spectrum amongst several users - such as internet providers - or use the spectrum available between TV frequencies, for example, for other purposes. A coordinated European approach to sharing spectrum is expected to lead to greater mobile network capacity and new markets such as tradable secondary rights for a given spectrum allocation.
Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda for Europe said: "Radio spectrum is economic oxygen, it is used by every single person and business. If we run out of spectrum then mobile networks and broadband won't work. That is unacceptable, we must maximise this scarce resource by re-using it and creating a single market out of it. We need a single market for spectrum in order to regain global industrial leadership in mobile and data, to attract more R&D investments."
Through advances in technology, shared spectrum access makes additional resources available without compromising the incumbent license holder's rights to use the frequencies. For example, many new wireless technologies are designed to share bands in which no licence is required (licence-exempt bands). Others make additional spectrum resources available by, for example, providing wireless broadband services in between TV frequencies (so-called 'white spaces').
To maximise the benefits of such approaches to share spectrum, regulatory barriers need to be removed and incentives provided at EU level. In particular, new regulatory approaches need to give different users, including current holders, guaranteed rights to use a given frequency band on a shared basis with guaranteed levels of protection against interference.
The ongoing implementation of the spectrum inventory in accordance with the RSPP will provide relevant usage information about frequency bands and thus facilitate the identification of beneficial sharing opportunities (BSO) in the single market for both licensed and license-exempt spectrum. Once established, BSOs can also be recorded in the inventory as benchmarks for other geographical areas or similar use in other frequency bands.
Tags: [european commission] [radio spectrum]
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