Interesting developments over in the UK on spectrum allocation
‘Digital Britain’ plan to unlock mobile broadband
Stuart O’Brien Jan 29 2009, 4:32pm
The UK government has put forward proposals to speed up deployment of 4G services.
The UK government has submitted a two-pronged plan to develop the country’s mobile broadband infrastructure.
The first part involves the re-farming and liberalisation of GSM spectrum, allowing it to be used for 3G or LTE use.
The second proposal sees the early phased release of the so-called ‘digital dividend’ spectrum at 800 MHz (for coverage) and the 3G extension bands at 2.6 GHZ (for capacity).
The government says this second part is currently being held up behind a ‘temporary roadblock’ – an impasse that it has encouraged regulator Ofcom to resolve speedily in the public interest.
The ultimate up shot of the measures, says the 86-page Digital Britain interim government report, will be nationwide coverage for mobile broadband networks offering headline data rates of up to100Mbps.
The report has also called on the UK’s mobile operators to share their network infrastructures to ensure coverage of both existing and future mobile services, in addition to sharing the burden of 4G rollout.