Ofcom: Industry Must Work Together To Make The Most Of Limited UK Spectrum

Ofcom says different industries must understand the spectrum needs of other sectors if the UK is to maximise the social and economic benefit of its finite airwaves.

Speaking at the launch of the UK Spectrum Policy Forum’s first Spectrum Usage and Demand report, Ofcom group director Philip Marnick said one of the biggest challenges facing the communications regulator was to balance the need of different sectors that think their spectrum demands are the most important.

Balancing act

“Spectrum itself is used by almost everybody and everything we do,” he said. “One of our challenges is to see how you can get the most efficient use and how we can get everybody actually interested to talk to everybody else.

“Everyone’s demand for spectrum is based on ‘I need it and while others might need it, they’ll be able to fix their demand so don’t really need it’. We’re trying to find a balance.”

The Spectrum Policy Forum comprises more than 100 members from different industries and advises the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Ofcom. Its report includes views on the important of bandwidth from the space, utilities, business radio, meterology and mobile industries and sets out their demands.

Competing demands

The authors hope the report will be a “living document” and the intention is to update it later this year with sections covering defence, shot range wireless including Wi-Fi, transportation, broadcast and entertainment, amateur radio, fixed links and wireless transport (backhaul and fronthaul) networks.

It is estimated the value of spectrum to the UK economy could double to £50 billion a year by 2025. More than half (53 percent) of the country’s airwaves are used by the public sector, while 25.4 percent is licence exempt. Fixed links, satellites and space science use more spectrum than the mobile industry, which uses just 8.4 percent.

Ofcom is working to increase the amount of airwaves available to industry through refarming, white spaces and spectrum sharing. It is working to modernise its spectrum allocation with a new map and says it will work towards international standards for industries that need it.

International harmonisation

“Some of the big sectors need international harmonisation because some applications spread beyond the UK,” pointing out that satellite operators and the Met Office need standardisation, while the use of common bands can reduce the cost of mobile hardware and infrastructure.

Later this year, governments will determine how the world’s spectrum resources will be allocated on a global scale at the World Radiocommunications Conference (WRC-15), organised by the UN-affiliated International Telecommunications Union.

“Spectrum is a hugely valuable, but limited, resource,” said Raj Sivalingam, executive director of the UK Spectrum Policy Forum. “The potential social and economic benefits are enormous, so it is important we fully understand future demand across multiple industries.

“Through extensive engagement we will be able to identify the spectrum pinch points, which will guide the future work of UK Spectrum Policy Forum, to inform future policy debates and maximise social and economic benefits from spectrum in the long-term.”

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