Wants regulators to allow 3G at lower frequencies
The GSMA has used a report, commissioned from Ovum, to call for regulators to allow the 900MHz waveband to be refarmed for UMTS usage.
The Ovum report found that the deployment of 3G networks in the 900MHz GSM spectrum band, as well as the 2100MHz band, could enable an additional 300 million people across Asia, Europe and Africa to enjoy mobile broadband services by 2012. Ovum's report said that the extensive use of both the 900MHz and the 2100MHz bands for 3G in Asia–Pacific countries could lead to 450 million people in the region using 3G by 2012, if all operators chose to deploy 3G and the majority of investment goes into 3G at 900MHz. If 3G were restricted to 2100MHz alone, Ovum forecasts there will be just 200 million people using 3G in the region by 2012.
The GSMA wants regulators to co-ordinate their planning so that the industry can plan and invest around UMTS equipment and terminals that can operate at 900MHz. The GSMA also suggests that the 850MHz waveband in the USA and Latin America be refarmed for UMTS.
The study examines the economics of 3G-network rollout at different frequency bands, but does not attempt to address the potential competitive effects of refarming.
“As well as requiring lower up-front investments than 3G/HSPA at 2100MHz, a 3G network at 900MHz is more cost-efficient and is better at handling both voice and data traffic, compared to GSM,” said Stewart Anderton, Principal Consultant at Ovum Consulting. “But 900MHz is one of the most used spectrum bands in the world and regulators must be careful to avoid interference with existing GSM services or interference across national borders.”
The GSMA's call for regulatory co-ordination can be seen as an attempt to head off ad-hoc arrangements which might see alternative wireless technologies targeted at re-farmed spectrum as it becomes available, or operators attempting to take competitive advantage in certain markets. It is also a response to GSMA member concerns in developed markets that meeting licence obligations solely using the 2100MHz wavebands will be too expensive. Instead of trying to renogiate the license terms, operators might be attracted by using the 900MHz band for those "hard-to-reach" areas – which are probably under-utilised by GSM users in any case.