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posted by janrinok on Tuesday November 19, @02:42PM   Printer-friendly

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Britain's mobile telcos will get to bid for mmWave spectrum to provide high-speed wireless services next year, according to Ofcom, which just published the final draft of the regulations governing the auction.

The UK telecoms regulator says it plans to release spectrum in the 25.1-27.5 GHz and 40.5-43.5 GHz bands in 2025, and make them available for operators to deliver faster services. These are set to be restricted to urban areas, since these high frequencies can typically only operate over a range of a few kilometers.

This will be a big shift for the country's telcos, which have until now only had access to frequencies below about 4 GHz to deliver a mobile service. Higher frequencies allow for higher transmission rates and lower latencies, and for this reason are already used in countries such as the US for 5G data services.

The spectrum planned for release amounts to 2.4 GHz of spectrum in the 26 GHz band, and another 3 GHz in the 40 GHz band. Because of the range factor, this will not replace the existing spectrum UK operators already use, but compliment it for higher-bandwidth services in high-density areas.

Ofcom published a notice of its plans back in May and invited views on the proposals. It says in its latest missive that having considered the responses, it decided to enact the regulations largely in the form it consulted on, but with some tweaks.

The proposals were to auction the available spectrum in three categories, with each lot comprising a block of 200 MHz. The categories consist of 26 GHz lower (25.1-26.5 GHz), 26 GHz upper (26.5-27.5 GHz), and 40 GHz (40.5-43.5 GHz).

That split of the 26 GHz band into two categories is because some incumbent users continue to operate in the 25.1-26.5 GHz part of the band, Ofcom says.

Reserve prices are expected to be £2 million ($2.55 million) for each lot of the 26 GHz band, and £1 million ($1.27 million) for each lot in the 40 GHz space.

However, the comms regulator has previously said the auction cannot proceed until the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has reached a decision on the proposed merger between Three and Vodafone, which might otherwise complicate matters.

The geographic scope of the licences will see each licensee authorized to use their allocated spectrum in all the major cities and towns across the country, Ofcom points out. In fact, one amendment to the final draft regulations makes it clear that awarded licenses only apply in designated areas – meaning those parts of the UK defined as "high density."

Telecoms industry analyst Paolo Pescatore at PP Foresight told us the merits of mmWave are clear to see, and he has personally experienced the "super lightning speeds" available with networks in some parts of the US.

This makes it great for locations like sports and entertainment venues where there tends to be enormous data demand, he added. The low latency should also make possible some of the oft-cited use cases for 5G networks, such as augmented reality and support for autonomous vehicles.

"However, the telcos need to avoid costly mistakes made with previous generations of network technology. The harsh reality means they will have to fork out more on capex and rolling out networks," Pescatore warned. "This comes at a time when margins are being squeezed, revenue increases are driven by price rises, and all focus is on driving further efficiencies," he added.

Ofcom also published information for those considering participating in the auction, including practical guidance on how to apply, and indicative timings for each stage of the award process. It also includes more detail about the spectrum to be made available and the conditions for its use.

While the auction is set to take place in 2025, Ofcom is not specifying exact dates at this point, saying only that it will provide a further update on timings before the end of this year.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Tuesday November 19, @02:49PM (3 children)

    by VLM (445) on Tuesday November 19, @02:49PM (#1382476)

    since these high frequencies can typically only operate over a range of a few kilometers.

    They're in/near the water adsorption bands, if you're wondering why. Luckily it never rains in the UK.

    Its trash enough that in the colonies we assigned 24 GHz to ISM use. Yes we ALSO have a 2.4 GHz ISM band (famously used for wifi)

    Its a very "analog curve" so the peak being 22 GHz doesn't mean the loss magically drops to 0 at 22.0001 GHz.

    • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Tuesday November 19, @04:35PM (2 children)

      by hendrikboom (1125) on Tuesday November 19, @04:35PM (#1382488) Homepage Journal

      What is "ISM use"?

      • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Tuesday November 19, @06:22PM

        by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday November 19, @06:22PM (#1382501) Journal
        Industrial, Scientific and Medical.
        --
        I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday November 19, @09:35PM

        by VLM (445) on Tuesday November 19, @09:35PM (#1382521)

        It's an ITU thing. In the USA its in CFR Title 47 part 15 (part 90 is mobile radio service, 97 is ham radio, part 73 is broadcast radio, etc). If you've ever seen this sticker on a device, its ISM: "This device complies with part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions: (1) This device may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation."

        Its unlicensed but NOT unregulated. Pretty much "don't overly irradiate yourself, your employees, or your neighbors" and "don't overly interfere with real regulated services" and then do whatever you want.

        I've built some things under 15.103(c) and as I think about it I've built stuff under 15.103(f) and 15.103(h) pretty interesting stuff.

        I think its interesting that part 15 is sort of the demarcation point between "radio stuff the FCC regulates" and "stuff that is not radio that the FCC does not regulate"

        Most FCC regulations regulate interop; not part 15 "do what you want" so there's wifi and Bluetooth on the same radio band, more or less. Any interop is at the industry level not government enforced. This is different from IIRC every other FCC service where you can't transmit whatever AM radio bandwidth you feel sounds best or whatever FM deviation sounds "cool". Even ham radio guys are at least semi-regulated for interop, at least on the lower frequency bands.

        Another interesting fact is there is a lot of band overlap; lots of hardware out there that ham radio guys can decide to operate under part 97 or under part 15 as a private citizen if they want.

        ISM is pretty cool.

  • (Score: 2) by ledow on Wednesday November 20, @11:39AM

    by ledow (5567) on Wednesday November 20, @11:39AM (#1382582) Homepage

    For context:

    "Ofcom auctioned radio spectrum needed for 4G mobile devices in 2013, raising £2.34 billion"

    "Mobile telephony services generated £3.41bn in retail revenues in Q1 2024"

    It's profitable for the companies to bid on these things, but they are very, very expensive.

    Every penny comes from customers ultimately, and goes back into Ofcom.

    There's no way that any of this money will actually go to building out the cellular network - that will cost many more billions that also comes from customers, and will only benefit large cities not the actual coverage elsewhere, and they will be in competition with each other regardless of frequency allocations, so it means all the big companies will ALL spend billions to serve the exact same areas.

    Why we don't just nationalise the base cellular network and have all providers operate as MVNOs, I don't understand.

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