Possible Bands List Circulated for Mobile Broadband Applications in EU
BRUSSELS -- Preliminary results of a European Commission study to boost efficiency of spectrum use to spur mobile broadband and other applications is focusing on bands used for satellite, terrestrial, aeronautical and defense applications, speakers told a European Commission workshop. The EC-funded study is a pilot program, or prototype, for the EU spectrum inventory, said Scott Marcus of WIK Consult. The inventory should identify candidate bands for improvement in use and assist in determining what might be done, the cost and expected benefits, said Marcus, who is project manager.
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The effort should be focused on identifying bands for possible new applications, particularly mobile broadband, said Eric Fournier with the French regulator Agence Nationale des Fréquences (ANFR). The results are preliminary and need to be re-verified, speakers said. There will be a second step needed to further examine the bands, participants said. The study’s aim is to spur a comparison among applications in the various bands, said John Burns of Aegis Systems. There are more than 200 applications between 400 MHz and 6 GHz, said Burns, who was involved in the study. Applications were sorted into 14 groups for analysis using numerous factors, he said.
The study is focused on gathering data on spectrum use between 400 MHz and 6 GHz in EU countries, Marcus said. A few bands outside that range are being looked at, he said, referring to certain bands for public protection and disaster relief. The concept of technical efficiency was analyzed using technical, economic, social and other criteria, he said. The study also calls on identifying any candidates for improved efficiency, he said. The EC on July 6 will hold another workshop on the spectrum inventory.
Preliminary results found a number of bands that are substantially underused in most EU countries, speakers said, including 40 MHz between 1452 to 1492 MHz, Burns said. The band was identified for digital audio broadcasting (DAB) many years ago, he said. “We're reasonably sure that there’s not DAB deployment in that band at the moment.” A number of services allocated to fixed links in frequencies just above and below the DAB band are used in varying degrees in EU countries, he said. The paired frequencies total 2 x 50 MHz between 1.35 and 1.55 GHz, he said. “Could that be used in an alternative way?” he asked.
Two TDD blocks, the original International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 band, are “effectively … lying fallow in pretty much the whole of Europe,” Burns said. IMT-2000 is an ITU standard for mobile communications. The frequencies are near 2 GHz, he said. UMTS satellite bands allocated at the 1992 World Radiocommunication Conference don’t appear to have any active deployments since, he said. Polled countries said the frequencies are unused, he said.
A large block of spectrum allocated to the mobile satellite service (MSS) near 1.5 GHz is quite heavily used by the aeronautical and maritime communities, Burns said, citing Inmarsat, Iridium and other services. “It’s not clear to what extent they're used within sub-continental Europe” at the terrestrial level, he said. One question is whether the 80 MHz needs to be exclusive to MSS across the EU, he said.
Some EU countries make pretty heavy use of the 2.3 GHz band, Burns said, citing France and the U.K. But France, the U.K. and others can’t fully disclose details of use, he said. Sweden is planning to consult on whether the band can be refarmed, he said. Use of 406 to 470 MHz by private mobile radio varies significantly between EU countries, Burns said, which limits the scope for future harmonization.
Use of the aeronautical radar band just above the 2.6 GHz band varies, Burns said. Sweden has one radar, he said, while the U.K. has nearly 100. Refarming at 2.7 GHz may be trickier than 2.3 GHz because it isn’t identified as an IMT band, he said. A band near 3 GHz used primarily by maritime radar to some extent depends on the geographical situation of countries, Burns said.
There’s a lack of information on bands between 3.1-3.4 GHz and 4.4-4.8 GHz because they're largely for defense use, Burns said. Frequencies between 3400 and 3800 MHz are generally lightly used across Europe, he said. They've been identified potentially for IMT use in the future, he said. The 400 MHz between 3800 and 4200 MHz is in relatively light use in the EU, especially by terrestrial services, he said. Use of frequencies at 5 GHz for Wi-Fi in Europe is currently light, speakers said. The U.K. appears to be the only country using the microwave landing system in a block of spectrum above 5 GHz, Burns said. The real usefulness of discussion and work will be to consider specific bands for boosting efficiency through substitution and other approaches, Fournier said. Gathering a large amount of data to try to develop criteria to determine what’s efficient is not the most useful part of the inventory, he said.