Over 600 organisations and private individuals have written to the regulator following the release of the Digital Dividend Review (DDR) document.
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Friday, March 30, 2007
Digital Dividend Review: responses flood in
UK regulator Ofcom has received an extraordinarily large number of submissions to its consultation on what to do with the frequencies released by the switch to digital TV.
No agreement yet on chair for WRC-07
Some countries are concerned that a split over the chairmanship may hinder attempts to build consensus at the World Radio Conference.
The ITU is facing the unusual situation of preparing for the next World Radio Conference (WRC-07) without having agreed on a chair. At the close of previous preparatory conferences there has usually been unanimity on who should head the forthcoming WRC.
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Consultation: Public Consultation on the Selection and Authorisation of Systems Providing Mobile Satellite Services
Building on the recent Commission Decision reserving radio spectrum for Mobile Satellite Services this consultation asks for views on a proposed framework for the selection and authorisation of operators to provide those services. Since the proposed framework includes regulatory actions at national level, Member States have been invited to run national consultations within the same timeframe.
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Thursday, March 29, 2007
UK allows consumer to bear 3G auction costs
Ofcom has denied the European Commission's claim that it is allowing mobile operators to pass on excessive spectrum licence costs to the consumer.
This week Ofcom announced the price controls it will impose on mobile operators trumpeting the fact that call charges will come down by 10%-45%, depending on the operator. However, the European Commission clearly thought it could have been more and expressed concern about Ofcom's methodology back in November.
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Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Is it time to update the R&TTE Directive?
Enhancing the flexible use of spectrum will be high on the agenda this summer when stakeholders will be asked to assess the effectiveness of EU regulation of wireless equipment.
The European Commission is to launch a consultation process to determine if there is a need to update the Radio and Telecommunications Terminal Equipment (R&TTE Directive) of 1999.
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Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Editorial: will Reding's intervention help or hinder the development of mobile TV?
How strong are the arguments for making DVB-H the European mobile TV standard? PolicyTracker investigates.
Why is European Commissioner Viviane Reding threatening to mandate DVB-H as the mobile TV standard when her usual preference is for technology neutrality? Three things: she believes mobile TV is an economic opportunity akin to GSM, in which Europe achieved global leadership. Secondly, she believes a single standard is necessary to achieve the economies of scale needed to make mobile TV a success. Thirdly, she isn't confident that industry will agree a common standard on its own.
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Monday, March 26, 2007
Industry condemns Commissioner's call to mandate DVB-H
Rarely has there been such a negative reaction to a policy initiative from the European Commission. Most regard it as unworkable and unhelpful.
'Flabbergasted', 'baffled', 'bemused', 'unbelievable' is how senior regulatory figures from across the wireless community described their reaction to Viviane Reding's comments about DVB-H. Speaking at a press conference during the CeBIT technology summit Commissioner Reding said she was disappointed by the progress made in establishing mobile TV services and threatened to mandate DVB-H as a European standard unless the industry agreed its own common standard by the summer.
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Thursday, March 22, 2007
Consultation: Award of available spectrum: 10 GHz and the London 2012 Olympic Games
Ofcom may need to make spectrum available at 10 GHz for the use of video links and wireless cameras during the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. 10GHz is one of the bands due to be released soon and this consultation document proposes a licence condition which would allow the band to be used for the Games.
Ofcom continues to consider how to proceed with awarding wireless-telegraphy licences to use the 10 GHz, 28 GHz, 32 GHz and 40 GHz bands and plans to publish further documents in the spring.
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Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Agree mobile TV standard or I will mandate DVB-H says Reding
The industry waits for competitors' reactions as European Commission gives ringing endorsement of DVB-H mobile TV standard.
In a shockingly robust intervention the EU Infosoc Commissioner, Viviane Reding has said the mobile TV market is developing so slowly that she will intervene to impose DVB-H as the single European standard unless progress is made by the summer.
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Digital dividend focus – will the free market destroy terrestrial HDTV?
HDTV is the future say UK broadcasters, but they can't afford to buy the spectrum to put it on the terrestrial platform. Is this pre-auction posturing or a looming crisis?
Magnus Brooke, controller of regulatory affairs for the UK commercial broadcaster, ITV, likens the importance of available HDTV spectrum to the last major seismic shift in television viewing, the change from black and white to colour TV.
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Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Digital dividend focus - the cost of the free market
Auctioning the UK's freed-up analogue TV spectrum on a technology neutral basis could cost hundreds of millions of pounds in re-engineering fees.
Public service broadcasters are urging the British government and UK telecoms regulator Ofcom to follow the French example and make a sizeable chunk of the UHF spectrum, which will be freed up by the switch-off of analogue TV, available for the provision of High Definition Television (HDTV) on the DTT platform.
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Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Could laser ease the bandwidth squeeze?
The armed forces are often criticised for over-use of the airwaves, but could a technology emerging from the military sphere transform current perceptions of spectrum scarcity?
Our appetite for bandwidth is enormous and growing still. Now that enabling technology has evolved, optical wireless (OW) or free space optical communications (FSO) using eye-safe laser could make current broadband data-transfer rates look like dial-up in decades to come. The US military is investing in the technology and intends to deploy 12 optical communications relay satellites commencing in 2012.
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Friday, March 09, 2007
US “white space” battle hots up as Microsoft unveils device prototype
US "white space" battle hots up as Microsoft unveils device prototype
The FCC is testing specifications for a cognitive radio device which six giants of the IT industry claim will enable the transmission of a wireless broadband service without interfering with digital TV signals.
The intensive debate in the US over the proposed use of unlicensed interleaved spectrum or "white space" freed up by the switch to digital television has been running for nearly three years and has now entered a new phase. In theory the consultation is over and the FCC is into the technical testing phase but the row shows no sign of abating. Interest in the spectrum, which would mainly be used for the provision of wireless broadband internet services, is also increasing in Europe with lobbyists for Microsoft and other interested parties making themselves heard.
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Thursday, March 08, 2007
DVB-H – which regulatory approach is working best?
Italy is the first European country to get a commercial DVB-H network, with Germany, Italy and Spain soon to follow. What can regulators learn from the speed of developments in these countries?
The UK mobile industry was disappointed by Ofcom's recent proposal to auction channel 36, which mobile firms want to use to launch DVB-H services, in the second half of 2008. The UK needs to launch services sooner, they say, if it is to avoid falling behind the rest of Europe.
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Monday, March 05, 2007
Mobile services in UHF proving a tricky proposition
Mobile services in UHF proving a tricky proposition
In an exclusive interview with PolicyTracker, Kavouss Anasteh, chairman of the WRC-07 preparatory meeting explains why most countries would prefer advanced mobile services in the higher frequency bands.
Bands between 3-5 GHz are emerging as the most popular international choice for advanced mobile systems, according to the chairman of the preparatory meeting for this year's ITU World Radio Conference. Assigning spectrum for 3G and 4G systems is one of the key tasks of WRC-07, which will get underway in October. The preparatory conference, or CPM-07 wrapped up on Friday (2 March 2007) under the chairmanship of Kavouss Arasteh but his view of the spectral future for advanced mobile systems will be greeted with concern in some European countries.
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Friday, March 02, 2007
Touchstone for mobile TV in Asia
An exercise by the Hong Kong regulator is set to gauge the likely popularity of the new Chinese mobile TV standard as well as determine the regulatory approach in a key regional market gearing up for the 2008 Olympics.
Regulators, operators and vendors from around the world will be watching with considerable interest a consultation process set in motion by the Office of the Telecommunications Authority of Hong Kong (Ofta) to determine how mobile television will be regulated. Earlier this month Ofta invited all incumbent telecoms carrier licensees and broadcasters to express their interest in bidding for spectrum for the provision of mobile TV and other digital broadcasting services.
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Thursday, March 01, 2007
March printed issue available for download
March printed issue available for download
Our themes this month are refarming the 2G spectrum, the surge of interest in 60GHz and a comparison of the regulatory approaches to mobile television.
We also have opinion pieces on the benefits of Administered Incentive Pricing and the policies needed to stimulate the development of digital wireless microphones.
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