French regulator ARCEP has published its draft decisions on the procedures for assigning frequencies in the 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz bands.
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Friday, May 20, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
NTIA needs to improve, congressional watchdog says
The US National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is not doing a good job of overseeing federal spectrum, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) made public on 12 May.
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Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Spectrum crisis claims are strategic gamesmanship, NAB says
A report from the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) casts doubt on some of the projections of mobile data growth that have been used to fuel claims of a "spectrum crisis" - just as the UMTS Forum predicts that voice and data traffic on mobile networks will grow more than 30-fold during the decade ahead.
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Monday, May 16, 2011
Belgian cable operators set for 3G spectrum
A partnership formed by two cable operators is the sole applicant for Belgium's fourth 3G licence, according to the Belgian Institute for Post and Telecommunications (BIPT).
The regulator has revealed that the applicant is Tecteo Telenet Bidco (TTB), a partnership between cable operator Telenet and the Tecteo Group. Telenet offers cable services throughout Belgium, primarily in Flanders and Brussels, while Tecteo owns Walloon-based cable operator VOO. BIPT says the application is admissible, meaning that the licence could be granted before the start of the summer.
Telenet currently offers MVNO services using the network of Belgium's second largest mobile operator Mobistar. It had 211,000 subscribers at the end of March 2011, an increase of 39 per cent compared to March 2010. The chief executive of Mobistar, Benoit Scheen, recently said the company was planning to strengthen its partnership with Telenet is the coming years.
BIPT first called for 2.1 GHz spectrum bids on 15 March, and the deadline for submission was 29 April. BIPT's original 3G auction plan required bidders to put down a deposit of €1 million for the 2 x 14.8 MHz of spectrum, with the minimum bid price set at €20,833 per MHz per month. The licence will be valid for 20 years.
3G licences were originally auctioned in Belgium in 2001. Although four were offered, only three were acquired, by telecoms operators Belgacom (owner of the country's largest mobile operator, Proximus), Mobistar and KPN (owner of the third largest, Base). The 2.1 GHz spectrum on offer now corresponds to the licence that was not granted in 2001. The successful applicant will also gain the right to acquire spectrum in the 900 and 1800 MHz bands.
The regulator plans to auction 4G licences in the autumn. A call for applications is due to be issued in June.•
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Friday, May 13, 2011
Commission rejects French 3G licence complaint
The process for awarding France's fourth 3G mobile licence in 2009 did not involve any state aid, the European Commission has ruled.
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Thursday, May 12, 2011
European Parliament approves RSPP
Plans for a five-year EU radio spectrum policy roadmap cleared the European Parliament on 11 May with lawmakers overwhelmingly backing amendments aimed at putting Europe in the lead in new broadband services.
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Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Webb leaves Ofcom with modern spectrum management framework
Until returning to the private sector in February this year, William Webb was research director at UK telecoms regulator Ofcom, where he spent seven highly productive and generally happy years. We look back on what he regards as his main achievements.
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Tuesday, May 10, 2011
LTE 1800 rollout in Lithuania
The LTE 1800 bandwagon continues to gain momentum with the launch of a new network in five Lithuanian cities, including the capital Vilnius.
This is the second commercial launch in Europe following one in Poland last year and the third worldwide, with CSL having recently launched a joint 1800/2600 MHz LTE service.
There have been extensive trials in Europe and elsewhere and vendors such as Ericsson are predicting 1800 will become a international LTE band alongside 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz in Europe and 700 MHz and 2.6 GHz in the Americas.
Australian incumbent Telstra recently announced it is rolling out LTE at 1800 MHz in the country's main cities to supplement its existing HSPA+ network running at 2.1 GHz. Rival operator Optus is expected to follow suit.
The Lithuanian service is from Scandinavian operator TeliaSonera, which launched the world's first commercial LTE network on 2.6 GHz spectrum in Norway and Sweden last year and has since launched in Finland, Denmark and Estonia.
The network equipment in Lithuania, where TeliaSonera operates under the Omnitel brand, was supplied by Chinese vendor Huawei. Modems supporting GSM, WCDMA and LTE are supplied by its main domestic rival, ZTE.
The rollout in the 1800 MHz band was made possible by EU legislation which removed restrictions on using the band - along with the 900 MHz band - only for GSM services.•
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Monday, May 09, 2011
Latvian regulator hints at lower price for 450 MHz spectrum
The new head of the Latvian Public Utilities Commission (PUC), Valdis Lokenbahs, has hinted that the PUC might significantly reduce the starting auction price for frequencies in the 450 MHz band after no one showed up for an auction in February.
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Friday, May 06, 2011
Filipino spectrum row seems set to end in court
A legal battle over spectrum holdings in the Philippines seems inevitable as the second largest operator tries to prevent the incumbent from taking over the third mobile operator unless it is compensated with extra spectrum.
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Wednesday, May 04, 2011
Portuguese 4G auction to start in June
Portuguese regulator Anacom plans to assign spectrum suitable for 4G services in six bands in an auction that it expects will raise at least €450 million. The auction is due to start next month.
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Tuesday, May 03, 2011
Cognitive radios may be the best way to leverage white spaces
In our second article on new technologies being developed to take advantage of the broadcast white space spectrum, we look at US-based cognitive radio pioneer xG Technology, which is aiming to use unlicensed spectrum to compete with mobile operators.
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