4G Americas: More worldwide economic loss with TV spectrum delay

A lot of people expressed disappointment and criticised Ofcom when the regulator announced that it was pushing back the 4G mobile spectrum auction yet again. Mobile data demand has been on the rise, especially since users are increasingly using their mobile devices to browse the Internet, send and receive emails, and stream media like music and videos. In fact, a study conducted by Ericsson found that mobile data demand has been consistently increasing, doubling in the past twelve months.

James Firth, the CEO of policy think tank firm Open Digital shared his opinion on the matter, stating: “Some of the behaviour is not helping and the current operators are putting profits first – for them data isn’t worth anything. Ofcom and the Government need to get the spectrum allocated as soon as possible.”

However, there is the effect of such delay amid all this talk on the mobile spectrum auction. It was reported in September of this year that many businesses and residents of the UK could end up suffering due to the delay in deploying LTE technology. Many industry analysts expressed their fears that the continued delay and postponement of LTE access could bring about a series of effects that might have an impact on businesses and on the economy.

4G Americas, a wireless industry trade association that represents the 3GPP family of technologies, published a white paper entitled “The Benefits of Using LTE in Digital Dividend Spectrum” that listed down key advantages in making use of the Digital Dividend TV spectrum for mobile broadband applications, including LTE technology.

Chris Pearson, President of 4G Americas, stated: “Around the world, there is little dispute that mobile broadband services delivered in the Digital Dividend spectrum provide great economic and social benefits. We must move forward as quickly as possible in streamlining processes and policies to reallocate it as licensed spectrum for the mobile broadband industry. If the reallocation of the band is not expedited, there will be harmful economic ramifications.”

The Digital Dividend Spectrum is a critical spectrum source for the mobile industry. It can be used to meet the growing mobile data needs of users and has the potential to provide services to the rural underserved markets. The paper further stated that the ideal propagation characteristics of the Digital Dividend spectrum make it suitable for mobile broadband use.

Pearson adds: “Though LTE and LTE-Advanced are poised to be the dominant mobile broadband and broadcast technologies to support the explosion of data traffic and are the most spectrally efficient of all mobile technologies, they alone will not be able to keep up with the ballooning network capacity demand. In short, we have a spectrum crunch and the mobile industry needs the Digital Dividend spectrum to be reallocated as licensed spectrum for the mobile industry.”

Source – Marketwire