Spectrum, mobile and wireless update September 2016

UK developments:

• The Telegraph reported that new powers set out in the Digital Economy Bill will enable Ofcom to apply financial penalties to mobile operators that do not meet the required coverage targets. Vodafone, EE, O2 and Three are under an obligation to provide signal to 90 per cent of the UK’s landmass by December 2017. Also see commentaries from ISP Review and uSwitch.
• The National Audit Office (NAO) warned that the Government’s proposed UK Emergency Services Network (ESN) faces “significant technical challenges”. These include working with EE to increase the coverage and resilience of its 4G network and developing handheld and vehicle mounted devices, as no devices currently exist that would work on ESN. The NAO regards the ESN as the “right direction strategically” and suggests that it will bring substantial benefits, but describes the programme as “inherently high risk” and notes  that the ESN business case is “overly optimistic” in its valuation of benefits.
• ISP Review reported on RootMetrics’ latest report on 3G and 4G mobile performance across 16 UK cities. Liverpool was top with Hull at the bottom, while Edinburgh jumped six places from 9th to third and London rose from 13th to 10th.

European news:

• The European Commission set out proposals for  WiFi4EU, a new initiative to provide free WiFi in and around public buildings and spaces with an initial budget of €120 million to support equipment and installation costs, along with a new 5G Action Plan to coordinate and encourage 5G development and deployment across the EU. Both these announcements formed a part of the Commission’s new 2025 ambitions for broadband in Europe. The Mobile Network highlighted the differences between the Commission’s plan and operators’ 5G Manifesto published in July. In particular, the Commission’s plan does not acknowledge operators’ concerns that European net neutrality guidelines could have an adverse impact on 5G investment by creating regulatory uncertainty over 5G’s potential to offer differentiated services via network slicing.
• The European Court of Justice ruled that operators of free public WiFi services cannot be held liable for copyright infringements committed by users of their networks. The Court also ruled that “an injunction ordering the internet connection to be secured by means of a password is capable of ensuring a balance between, on the one hand, the intellectual property rights of rightsholders and, on the other hand, the freedom to conduct a business of access providers and the freedom of information of the network users…such a measure is capable of deterring network users from infringing intellectual property rights…in order to ensure that deterrent effect, it is necessary to require users to reveal their identity to be prevented from acting anonymously before obtaining the required password.”

Companies and technologies news:

• EE announced the next phase of its 4G network to support Cat 9 LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) technology, which can theoretically support  speeds of up to 450Mbit/s by combining multiple spectrum bands.
• Telecompaper reported on Vodafone Germany’s launch of 4.5G services supporting speeds of up to 375Mbit/s. The technology will be available in 30 cities by the end of 2016.
• Nokia announced 4.5G Pro mobile network infrastructure which will increase “initial 4G network speeds ten times to gigabit data rates” and outlined its plans for 4.9G, which will “allow users to maintain a continuous 5G service experience using an evolved LTE to complement 5G radio coverage.”
• ZDnet reported that Samsung and T-Mobile are to collaborate on 5G trials; the two companies will conduct a series of trials across T-Mobile's 28GHz mmWave spectrum using Samsung's 5G beam-forming technology. Both T-Mobile and Samsung are involved in the US government's 5G initiative.
• The WiFi Alliance announced an LTE-U and WiFi Coexistence Test Plan; this will “help ensure LTE-U devices can demonstrate they share unlicensed spectrum fairly and will serve as a valuable tool for vendors and service providers seeking to improve how their deployments coexist with Wi-Fi networks.” More background on LTE-U here.
• AT&T  announced Project AirGig, a technology which “could one day deliver low-cost, multi-gigabit wireless internet speeds using power lines…We’re experimenting with multiple ways to send a modulated radio signal around or near medium-voltage power lines. There’s no direct electrical connection to the power line required and it has the potential of multi-gigabit speeds in urban, rural and underserved parts of the world.”  Also see commentaries from Network World, ISP Review and Ars Technica.