Spectrum, otherwise frequency is a scarce resource and the extremely rapid technical developments in mobile communication services have resulted in a boom in demand for use of radio frequencies.
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC’s) frequency management policy encourages the use of spectrum, taking account of the economic, cultural, scientific and social aspects as well as considerations of security.
Spectrum management is the process of regulating the use of radio frequencies to promote efficient use and gain a net social benefit. The term radio spectrum typically refers to the full frequency range from 3 kHz to 300 GHz that may be used for wireless communication. Increasing demand for services such as mobile telephones and many others has required changes in the philosophy of spectrum management.
The former practice of discrete bands licensed to groups of similar services is giving way, in many countries, to a "spectrum auction" model that is intended to speed technological innovation and improve the efficiency of spectrum use.
Most countries consider RF spectrum as an exclusive property of the state. The RF spectrum is a national resource, much like water, land, gas and minerals. Unlike these, however, RF is reusable. The purpose of spectrum management is to mitigate radio spectrum pollution and maximize the benefit of usable radio spectrum.
Frequency for Mobile Broadband
Giving all citizens access to mobile broadband requires action from both government and industry. Mobile operators, who have raised finance and started to roll out mobile broadband networks, are developing business plans to ensure they can provide sufficient capacity to meet future demand.
Governments now need to provide clear, consistent regulation and sufficient spectrum to support these plans.
According to Global System for Mobile Association (GSMA), at least a three-fold increase in spectrum availability will be required by 2020 to meet the predicted growth in demand for mobile broadband services.
“This spectrum will be found in a number of different bands but for the provision of universal broadband access the most important is the low-frequency, UHF band. In many countries, spectrum in this band will be freed up following the switchover from analogue to digital television; in others such spectrum can be freed up by reframing from military or other services currently occupying the band”.
Spectrum efficiency savings made from the transition to digital broadcasting and the reframing of the UHF band provide an opportunity for governments and citizens to benefit from a “digital dividend”.
Ross Bateson, Special Governemt Adviser, GSMA, said that the digital dividend spectrum in the UHF range has very good propagation characteristics and is highly suitable for the roll-out of mobile broadband in rural and other difficult-to-reach areas. “Allocating the digital dividend spectrum to mobile will mean that network operators require fewer base stations, meaning less capital investment is needed to bring broadband to all areas,” he said.
Harmonization
Harmonization of frequencies within each region will reduce cross-border interference, enable people to use their devices when traveling outside their home country and, most importantly, enable equipment manufacturers to realize economies of scale. Maximizing economies of scale will lower the cost of deploying mobile networks and lower the prices that consumers pay for mobile devices. GSMA studies have shown that spectrum fragmentation can significantly increase the costs of ownership to consumers, and that developing markets are particularly sensitive to such costs.
To ensure efficient availability of mobile broadband services for their citizens, governments need to act now to provide a clear roadmap for the future availability of spectrum. Even in countries where digital switchover is not scheduled for several years, governments will serve their citizens best by giving clear guidelines as to the future availability of spectrum. Without visibility of likely spectrum allocations and clear roadmaps for the award of licences, mobile equipment vendors and operators can neither plan for network roll-outs, nor invest in the development of infrastructure and devices.
World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-12), the UMTS Forum said that additional spectrum must be urgently identified and allocated to support growth in mobile data.
As non-voice traffic grows explosively over the next decade, the mobile industry association warns that operators face increasing challenges to add capacity and coverage to their existing networks. As the efficiency of broadband cellular technologies rapidly approaches theoretical limits, the UMTS Forum warns that the gap between demand for media-rich mobile services and available network capacity will increase sharply in the coming decade.
In its most recent projections, the UMTS Forum has calculated that mobile data traffic will grow by a factor of 33x during the decade to 2020. This growth is even more pronounced in Western Europe, where the same study forecasts that data traffic will leap by a factor of 67x in the same 10-year period.
Investment in new technologies and network density alone cannot address this dramatic increase in demand that is widely echoed by numerous other industry forecasts. To deliver the full socio-economic promise of mobile broadband, it is therefore clear that advances in technology and investment must be complemented by timely availability of harmonized radio spectrum to support new services and more users.