Page 55 - EE Times Europe September 2021

EE|Times EUROPE 55

MARKET & TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
Europe Struggling to Share Spectrum

By John Walko

he global wireless communications tivity objectives, mandated “mobile coverage everywhere” throughout
sector needs to embrace a difficult the EC’s sphere of influence and specified that in four years’ time, all
truth: If it is to sustain growth at the households must have access to data rates of at least 100 Mbits/s.
T pace it has set in recent years and offer The EC’s Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG) in February published
ever-more innovative services, it will have to the RSPG Report on Spectrum Sharing to get the ball rolling on a cohe-
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implement schemes to share radio spectrum. sive European effort and find a way to maximize the opportunities that
Spectrum sharing presents a complementary can accrue through spectrum sharing. The target is to reach consen-
approach to exclusive licensing that, if well- sus on coordinated frameworks for sharing frequencies that are not
planned, may open up access to more spectrum licensed to a single operator or that can be deployed for both private
for emerging services, including access to bands and public networks.
that cannot be cleared of incumbent services. Real Wireless’s “Unfortunately, we seem to be quite a long way from agreeing a
That some regions are proving better than Abhaya harmonized approach,” Abhaya Sumanasena, head of Spectrum and
others at solving the spectrum dilemma is Sumanasena Regulation at consultancy Real Wireless, told EE Times Europe. “The
hardly surprising. The United States and some main stumbling block is that different countries within the EU, and
parts of Asia have already started implement- outside of the bloc, favor different approaches.”
ing concrete solutions to at least some of the spectrum-sharing issues. The majority may favor the Licensed Shared Access (LSA) route, a
But Europe is finding it difficult to come to terms with the spectrum technique largely developed in Europe, but there is certainly no una-
access problem and decide on the best technical and economic models nimity, with some countries preferring a method by which operators
to mitigate it. In dragging its heels on spectrum sharing, Europe risks would be allowed to share spectrum voluntarily for the fastest services.
repeating the mistakes it made in addressing another important wire- “Even though the underlying technologies for many of the potential
less access issue, deployment of unlicensed 6-GHz spectrum for Wi-Fi approaches are well-understood, catering to the many local specifics
use, and again is in danger of falling behind in offering its population is proving to be a difficult task,” said Sumanasena. “This is despite the
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the best and fastest services. fact that in Europe, as everywhere else, demand for higher speeds and
The problem, of course, is structural: There are too many countries, more innovative services is increasing exponentially.”
regulatory regimes, and local interests that need to be satisfied. It’s one Sumanasena added that the U.S. is showing the way on what can
thing to make grand and sensible statements on how to regulate the be achieved, with its focus on developing and then implementing its
scarce resource, but quite another to consider the requirements of the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) after a far-sighted Federal
numerous public, private, and commercial stakeholders and come up Communications Commission (FCC) gave the all-clear. (It should be
with a unified and coordinated business model to serve them all. noted that CBRS has nothing to do with the CB radio network). “It was
Recently, the European Commission, as part of its EU 2025 Connec- a complex business getting from concept to commercialization, taking

IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK

www.eetimes.eu | SEPTEMBER 2021