With all that is going on at the moment in the UK with the Orange/T-Mobile merger, LTE in 1800 MHz, upcoming auctions for 800 and 2600 MHz spectrum in 2012, potential sale of 1800 MHz spectrum of EE to H3G, etc. it's a bit difficult to keep track of who actually has spectrum where and how much. Is your head spinning? Mine does.
But here's an interesting document released by Ofcom that shows who has what kind of spectrum in 2012 that sheds some light on the current situation. The details are on page 8. Quite insightful.
Development in microcell/HetNet, eICIC, chip and RF component support for a growing array that includes LTE modes is rap[idly emerging along the lines of evolving toward 'SDWN', Smart Distributed WBB Network, or Smart HetNet as Q is calling it.
Part of that approach is to align and incorporate both 3G-LTE small cells and Wi-Fi which incorporate the variety of MACs for access to various licensed, unlicensed and 'licensed-light' spectrum.
Its of interest to watch the regulatory developments and planned auctions and deployments occurring in the UK (Ofcom), Brazil, EU and US, in regards to orchestration of spectrum to provide multiple carrier band access through auction requirements for access to licensed spectrum.
The general approach is to make some spectrum available for minority participation for which devices can be used in common across both the licensed and minority player participation or unlicensed bands of the newly allocated/licensed/licensed-light spectrum.
The prevailing trends in most countries has been toward consolidation of operators and spectrum access. This runs counter to what some think should occur using the common IP approach. It will be interesting to see whether trends towards industry consolidation or a shift toward 'broadband commons' takes hold in the future.
Posted by: Robert Syputa | September 14, 2012 at 08:30 PM