During previous (and ongoing) spectrum auctions around Europe, operators secured varying assignments in the bands 1900-1920 and 2010-2025 MHz. The bands are intended to be used for time-division duplex (TDD) technology, on which both the uplink and downlink to the cell site are time-shared on the same frequency. One of the main difficulties in utilising these frequencies is that operators on adjacent frequencies are likely to experience interference problems if power limits are not adapted or mitigation techniques are not deployed. Because of this, the bands have remained largely unused across Europe - clearly an inefficient use of spectrum, at a time when operators are clamouring for more.

In recognition of this, the European Commission is investigating the benefits that might arise should the use of these TDD bands be liberalised to permit, for example, the use of TD-LTE technology, and the application of CEPT Report 39 which specifies the use of the bands in a technology neutral way through the use of block-edge masks. Helios has been contracted by the Commission to support their regulatory impact analysis of these changes. As part of this work, we have approached all 90 or so operators with licences in the bands and asked for their participation in a survey. The deadline for this survey was 5 August but if you are an operator who hasn’t yet responded, please take the effort to do so, as long as your input is with us by early September, we can still take it into consideration.

Finding a solution that can enable the bands to be used for new services in demand , e.g. additional capacity for connections, or more innovative services such as live video or 3G (or 4G) hotspots is of high importance and can only help address the capacity crunch that operators are beginning to face.

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Spectrum & Telecoms Director
Tel: +44 1252 451 686
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