ITU Debate Plows Ground for WRC Talks on Spectrum Management

The challenge is to prove current arrangements’ adequacy or find new paradigms for the international regulatory regime, said Valery Timofeev, dir.-ITU’s Radio Sector. The 2007 World Radio Conference (WRC) will weigh many topics of interest to the wireless community, including data on options to improve the international spectrum regulatory framework, he said.

The speed of technological change is increasing demand for spectrum. At recent WRCs, new applications to use spectrum greatly exceeded spectrum available, said Tim Kelly, head of ITU’s Strategy & Policy Unit. The concern is that a govt.=style command and control approach doesn’t guarantee efficient spectrum use or reuse, may be slow and inflexible and may slow adoption of new devices, such as low power devices, Kelly said.

Most countries use a mix of command and control by govt., an open spectrum commons approach where some spectrum is unlicensed and a market mechanism identifying exclusive usage rights for certain frequencies, Kelly said. A major problem facing regulators is what happens when the 3 regimes overlap due to geography or grandfathering spectrum to a particular use, or when spectrum allocated by open spectrum commons such as WiFi is substitutable for more expensive spectrum, he said.

“There is no one size that fits all in terms of spectrum management approaches,” Kelly said. “Most developed countries have already moved to some extent towards using market mechanisms for” first round assignment of spectrum, Kelly said: “The major debate now is to what extent government should facilitate the secondary allocation through market mechanisms for instance.”

Spectrum trading by geography or bandwidth is the most talked-about form of secondary allocation, Kelly said, but there are others, such as providing financial incentives to move, or leasing of spectrum. Italy used financial incentives to encourage the changeover from analog to digital terrestrial TV. Hong Kong built into its auction process for 3G spectrum a requirement to allocate up to 30% of spectrum to mobile virtual network operators, Kelly said. Market mechanisms ensure efficient use of spectrum, encourage competition and innovation, but may lead to hoarding or speculation, officials said: Long licenses may slow innovation; short licenses may deter investment.

“We have the drive now for flexible band concepts” and the need to introduce more liberalization in licensing, Arturas Medeisis, deputy dir.-European Radiocommunication Office, said: “We have two major schools of spectrum management being discussed now.” Balancing the 2 is critical, he said. Market-led spectrum management in Europe isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, he said: “I think all now agree that in principle these market elements could help in bringing some more dynamism” in some aspects. “If we introduce liberalization very quickly, one danger could be it is just going to shatter this fine balance,” Medeisis said.

“There are 3 main drivers for spectrum: mobile, Internet, and safety and security,” NASA consultant William Luther said: “These 3 drivers give complications for government managed spectrum and lead to differences between government and commercial spectrum managers.” Some frequency auctions receive many bids with high value; others receive none, he said.

Fitting mobile handsets with new technologies for new frequencies raises costs, said Fred Christmas, dir.-strategic technology planning at Hutchison 3, speaking for the GSM Assn. RF makes up 7% of handset materials costs. Handset processing components cost 28%. Frequency component costs are rising, he said. Looking at various 2G and 3G standards, a phone would have to work on 9 bands. Atop that, Bluetooth, WiFi, DVB-H (Digital video broadcast for handhelds) and DMB (Digital multimedia broadcast) are appearing in mobile devices. Integrating new bands has a major impact on handsets and their performance. The complexity can cause RF interference, makes the handset less sensitive. “Frequency harmonization has a major impact on costs and this needs to be addressed when considering liberalization,” Christmas said. Handset vendors want to give developing markets a low cost answer.

“Many discussions about spectrum allocation are… too theoretical,” said Phil Laven, dir.-European Bcstg. Union’s technical department. “Too many debates about spectrum management are led by economists and lawyers,” he said: “Practical issues such as interference are often underplayed and not understood by economists… Interference in the digital world… is a total mystery to consumers… If you want spectrum efficiency, you should go to a frequency planning expert.”