Spectrum Sharing: The Wireless Carpool Lane
The vision of urban planners in the late 1940’s and 1950’s was that of a suburban population commuting to work in the main city. People flocked to the suburbs and highways were built to connect suburbs...
View ArticleBehind The Headlines: Will Small Cells Thrive Under Spectrum Sharing Regime?
Momentum for spectrum sharing is gathering strength, particularly for the 3.5 GHz band which is slated for small cell deployments. The NTIA has done detailed studies and prioritized this band ahead of...
View ArticleUK 4G Spectrum Auction Concludes – A Brief Analysis
The long-awaited 800 MHz and 2600 MHz UK auction concluded today with a total of £2.34 billion, or $3.63 billion (Ofcom set reserve price at £1.3 billion). The winners of 60 MHz of digital dividend...
View ArticleShould Small Cells Be Deployed In Their Own Spectrum Band?
Small cells raise a number of practical implementation questions which are yet to be resolved. One such question is whether small cells should operate in the same frequency band as the macrocell layer...
View ArticleAustralian Digital Dividend Spectrum Auction Concludes by Raising $2 Billion.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) announced last Tuesday the results of the 700 MHz & 2500 MHz spectrum auction. A total of AU$ 1.96 billion (US$ 2.02 billion) was raised by...
View ArticleNew FCC Rules Give 60 GHz a Boost
The FCC enacted changes to Part 15 rules for the 60 GHz band (57 – 64 GHz) that will give a boost to different types of data backhaul applications. In a very significant move, the FCC increased the...
View ArticleKorea Spectrum Auction Unloads More 1800/2600 MHz Spectrum
The latest round of spectrum auctions in Korea concluded with KT acquiring precious 15 MHz of 1.8 GHz spectrum adjacent to its existing band. The country’s largest operator, SK Telecom acquired 35 MHz...
View ArticleCanada 700 MHz Spectrum Auction Concludes Raising C$ 5.27 Billion
Results of the auction for 700 MHz spectrum in Canada were announced today: CAD 5.27 billion (USD 4.73 billion) was raised. This is more than what operators had hoped to fork out for this auction,...
View ArticleFrom LTE-U to LTE-DSA: Solving The Capacity Crunch
The proposal by Qualcomm to enable LTE operation in unlicensed band (LTE-U) received a warm response from some (e.g. Ericsson, Verizon) and not so warm from others especially incumbents with strong...
View ArticleRaising the Stakes in 3.5 GHz: LTE-Advanced Achieves 1 Gbps
The 3 GHz frequency bands stands at the upper limit of what is considered today as viable spectrum for mobile communications. But bands 42 (3400 – 3600 MHz) and 43 (3600 – 3800 MHz) are not only the...
View ArticleDefining the Innovation Band and Shared Spectrum Access
Spectrum sharing rules for the 3.5 GHz band in the US are beginning to take shape. While there are still some important aspects to define, the broad lines have been drawn for the Citizens Broadband...
View ArticleShould Licensed Spectrum be Allocated to IoT Applications?
A mix of connectivity technologies combines to enable the Internet of Things. These technologies can be complementary or competitive in nature. Determining which fits and which does not starts with the...
View ArticleAWS-3 Auction Closes on $44 Billion: Did They Cross The Bounds of The Rational?
It seems US wireless operators have crossed the bounds to the irrational in bidding on the AWS-3 spectrum. As I write this article, round 91 closed at over $43.74 billion for the 65 MHz of spectrum....
View ArticleAWS-3 Auction 97: Behind the Numbers
Auction 97 for the AWS-3 band made headline news as operators spent $44.9 billion on 65 MHz of spectrum – a huge sum of money. But what’s behind the headline story; what do the numbers tell? Here are...
View Article600 MHz Incentive Auction Key Facts
Now that the AWS-3 auction has concluded, not without controversy which will continue to reverberate for some time, attention will shift to the incentive auction planned by the FCC for next year. Being...
View ArticleCanada AWS-3 Spectrum Result Summary
The AWS-3 auction in Canada has wrapped up raising a total of C$2.11 billion (US$ 1.68b) in a sealed-bid second-price format that was completed in a day. Of the 50 MHz auctioned, 30 MHz was set aside...
View Article2600 MHz Canada Spectrum Auction Overview
The spectrum auction concluded on May 12 raising over C$755 million (US$624 m). Telus was the biggest spender with over C$478 m to secure 1339m MHz-PoP. The blended cost per MHz-PoP for the overall...
View ArticleWhat to Shut Down First 2G or 3G?
Telenor Norway announced it will shut down 3G network in 2020; five years before 2G. This is yet another example of how operators in Europe are diverging from North American operators by opting to shut...
View ArticleGerman Spectrum Auction Overview
The German 700 MHz auction concluded with a price tag of a billion Euro: Also auctioned were the 900, 1800, and 1500 MHz bands for a total of over €5 billion ($5.76 b). The 1500 MHz is TDD duplex mode...
View ArticleTime for a Comprehensive Strategy for License-Exempt Spectrum
Calls for regulators to release more unlicensed spectrum for Wi-Fi are getting louder: the 2.4 GHz band is heavily used and the 5 GHz band suffers from many restrictions that limit its applicability....
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