Spectrum, mobile & wireless update April 2016

Ofcom updates:

• This month Ofcom published a statement on a framework for spectrum sharing, setting out the framework it will apply to future spectrum authorisation decisions to assess spectrum sharing opportunities. This follows a consultation published in July 2015. The spectrum sharing framework is part of Ofcom’s broader programme of work addressing the continued significant growth in the demand for spectrum; also see commentary from Out-Law.
• Ofcom published a consultation on use of the 3.8 GHz to 4.2 GHz band alongside the framework, “as a candidate band for enhanced spectrum sharing, for potential new innovative applications.” Ofcom’s preliminary analysis indicates that the band is suitable for more intensive sharing; geographic licences and "opportunistic spectrum access" are mechanisms that could be used to facilitate this.
• Ofcom also published a consultation amending the licence exemption regulations for white space devices to include additional two organisations which have recently qualified to provide white space database services: the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Google UK Limited. The 2015 Regulations require white space devices to transmit in accordance with operational parameters obtained from a database operated by an organisation listed in the regulations; more background on white space devices here.
• Also last month Ofcom published its report on the outcomes of the 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-15, more background here and here). Ofcom regards that WRC-15 outcomes “were closely aligned with UK objectives going into the Conference and, we believe, represent an excellent outcome for the UK.”

Other spectrum, mobile and wireless news this month:

5G news: Korean operator SK Telecom announced that it has verified the performance of a 5G system in the 28 GHz band in an outdoor environment, in cooperation with Samsung. The company said that the test results will be an important asset for building an enhanced 5G system, including its 5G pilot networks to be built within the end of this year. Network World provided an overview of 5G progress and the technical challenges that remain to be overcome, estimating that completion of the standards work could take two or three years and product development could push deployment dates to 2020 or 2021.

EE announced an ambition to grow 4G coverage from 60% to 95% of UK landmass by 2020, as well as a partnership with Lime Micro and Canonical to launch a fully programmable open source network capability, built on Lime’s ‘network in a box’ solution. Developers can configure this to provide any wireless service, including 4G and WiFi. The first programmable development kit will be provided to the University of the Highlands and Islands. Also see coverage from ISP Review.

EE also announced its participation on the LTE-Broadcast Alliance, alongside Verizon, kt and Telstra. The Alliance’s primary goal is to encourage global support for LTE-Broadcast (LTE-B) services from all device makers; LTE-B “enables a mobile operator to send a single stream of data to all mobile users in one area, as opposed to sending an individual stream to each user.” EE trialled LTE-B at the 2015 FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, in partnership with the BBC, allowing HD broadcast of multiple camera angles and replays to mobile devices in the stadium.

OpenSignal and Which? reported that mobile customers in the UK are only able to access 4G 53% of the time on average across the four networks. On average EE customers have the best 4G coverage with customers able to access a 4G signal 60.6% of the time. Vodafone was second with their customers able to connect to a 4G signal 57% of the time. O2 came third and Three last with their customers able to access 4G signal 56% and 39.8% of the time respectively. These findings are based on data collected from over 30,000 registered users of OpenSignal’s mobile app which takes a background reading every 15 minutes to calculate the proportion of time users can access 4G.

Network World reported that Google is to begin testing innovative 3.5 GHz wireless capabilities by using antennas on light poles and other structures in eight areas of Kansas City. The test supports spectrum sharing and could last up to 18 months and result in fast, short-range wireless connections to serve areas not currently reached by Google Fibre. Theoretically wireless speeds of up to 300Mbit/s could be achieved. See this Federal Communications Commission (FCC) news release for more on the FCC's plans for spectrum sharing in the 3.5 GHz band; the FCC has designated 3.5 GHz as an "innovation band...to create a space for a wide variety of users to coexist by sharing spectrum". 

MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab announced a Wi-Fi based positioning system called Chronos that enables a single WiFi access point to locate users to within tens of centimetres, without any external sensors. Chronos locates users by calculating the “time-of-flight” that it takes for data to travel from the user to an access point. The system is 20 times more accurate than existing systems, computing time-of-flight with an average error of 0.47 nanoseconds.

Finally, Network World also reported that LTE-U, which allows mobile operators to use the same unlicensed frequency as Wi-Fi (more background here), may have missed its window of opportunity, as operators may be getting ready to bypass LTE-U altogether in favour of Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) which operates similarly but with additional protections for Wi-Fi.