Friday, August 31, 2007

Google casts cloud of uncertainty over US 700MHz auction

What is being called the 100-year auction, perhaps the last chance to grab substantial amounts of US spectrum in the foreseeable future, is scheduled to start on January 16 2008.

The spectrum in question is the 700MHz band, part of the UHF spectrum being freed up by the switch from analogue to digital broadcasting branded the digital dividend. Europe is several years behind the US in the switchover and European auctions will not be held for several more years, so what happens in the US will been closely watched by regulators in Europe and elsewhere.

Read the full details at:

http://www.policytracker.com/alerts.php?tact=599

Thursday, August 30, 2007

EU generic licensing framework ready by December

WAPECS is a little behind schedule but several countries are already implementing technology and service neutral licences, with Germany taking the lead.

Despite some slippage in the time frame for the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Unions (CEPT) working group SE42 to complete its report on technical specifications for generic licenses under the EC's WAPECS (Wireless Access Platforms for Electronic Communication Services) mandate, good progress has been made according to SE42 chairman Steve Bond.

Read the full details at:

http://www.policytracker.com/alerts.php?tact=598

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Opinion: one step forward and two steps back – the UK L-band auction

Michael Whittaker, the architect of Australia's liberalised spectrum management framework, warns that the self regulation proposed by Ofcom in 1.5GHz could allow companies to devalue their competitors' licences.

There has been some progress with spectrum right definition in Ofcom's 1.5 GHz spectrum auction consultation published 25 July 2007. For the first time Ofcom seems to be aware of the benefits of specifying a single propagation model as a basis for testing compliance with in-band, adjacent-area PFD (field strength) limits.

Read the full details at:

http://www.policytracker.com/alerts.php?tact=597

Friday, August 10, 2007

UWB legalised in the UK

Legal changes which will allow the use of Ultra Wide Band devices in the UK come into effect on Monday 13 August.

This development is the result of UK regulator Ofcom implementing the European Commission decision on Ultra Wide Band (UWB) which members states are required to adopt by 21 August.

Read the full details at:

http://www.policytracker.com/alerts.php?tact=596

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

FCC engineers expose serious failings in prototype whitespace devices

As Europe starts to investigate other uses of vacant TV spectrum, US whitespace devices submitted by a consortium of IT giants have failed to live up to their promise of performance in tests carried out by the FCC.

This is a set back for the two cognitive radio devices built by Microsoft and Philips and backed by their consortium partners Google, Dell, Hewlett Packard, and Intel.

Read the full details at:

http://www.policytracker.com/alerts.php?tact=595

Monday, August 06, 2007

Opinion: Applying market principles to spectrum management

A market-based approach is the way of the future according to a new book by three of the architects of the UK approach to liberalisation. Here Martin Cave, Chris Doyle, William Webb argue that obstacles like interference can be overcome.

The key purpose of spectrum management is to maximise the value that society gains from the radio spectrum. This can be achieved in principle by allowing as many of the highest value users as possible to access the spectrum while ensuring that the interference between different users remains manageable. However, achieving this in practice is difficult. Identifying the highest value users in advance is prone to error and the balance between allowing additional users while ensuring that interference remains within appropriate bounds is highly complex and changes over time.

Read the full details at:

http://www.policytracker.com/alerts.php?tact=594