The licensing of the 2.6-GHz band will be critical to unlocking the benefits of global-scale economies in the mobile broadband market, according to a report by Global View Partners in partnership with GSMA. The ITU has identified the 2.6-GHz spectrum as the “3G extension band,” which will play a role in satisfying the demand for greater capacity for mobile broadband and for launching next-generation networks such as Long-Term Evolution (LTE), which will start to be deployed commercially around the world this year, the organizations also said.

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“The report highlights that the 2.6-GHz band will allow operators to address rapidly increasing traffic volumes in an efficiency and harmonized way,” said Tom Phillip, chief regulatory affairs officer at GSMA. “Recent licensing of this band in Hong Kong, Norway, Finland, and Sweden, for example, has highlighted that there is more demand for paired (frequency-division duplex, or FDD) than unpaired spectrum (time-division duplex, or TDD) and that the ITU’s recommended Option 1 plan is the best structure to stimulate market growth in a technology-neutral and competitive environment.”

In Europe, measurable progress has been achieved toward the allocation of the 2.6-GHz frequency, as specified in the ITU Option 1 plan, which recommends 2x 70 MHz of FDD at both ends with a center block of 50 MHz of TDD. There is widespread agreement that this objective will be best fulfilled in a manner that is harmonized and coordinated across all of the countries in the region.

The research suggests that leaving the band unstructured for auctions or with a diverse mix of non-harmonized FDD and TDD allocations should be avoided. Potential challenges include interference management, resulting reductions in usable bandwidth, and loss of coverage in border regions, as well as higher costs and delayed equipment availability. And in many cases, the 2.6-GHz frequency will give mobile operators their first opportunity to acquire 2x 20 MHz of contiguous spectrum to operate high-speed LTE services at optimum performance.

Designed for GSM and CDMA operators, LTE is designed to significantly increase data capacity in high-demand zones such as dense urban areas. GSMA calls the 2.6-GHz spectrum the ideal complement for the 700-MHz spectrum, also known as the “digital dividend, and says that it will enable the most cost-effective nationwide coverage of mobile broadband across rural and urban environments. Governments in most Western European countries as well as Brazil, Chile, Columbia, and South Africa are planning to award 2.6-GHz frequencies within the next two years.

The full report is available at
gsmworld.com/documents/GVP_-_GSMA_2_6_GHz_Report_-_Final_9Dec09.pdf.

GSMA