Cooperation will increase broadband benefits, representatives say
13 Southern and Eastern European countries have formed a working group to increase co-operation between nations in order to try and gain harmonized allocation of digital dividend spectrum across the region.
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Regulatory and government representatives from the countries have agreed to form a group that will work to synchronise the development of digital dividend licensing in the region.
The governments met in Serbia last week to share information and discuss issues surrounding the digital dividend. A statement produced by the Serbian government, on behalf of the attendees, said that the full benefits of broadband could only be achieved if cooperation was achieved between countries, as well as at a bilateral level.
Roberto Ercole, Director of Spectrum Regulation at the GSMA, said that there are some issues specific to the region that merited forming a combined approach. Although, as in most of Europe, analogue TV dominates the band currently, but there are also some countries where aeronautical radar systems operate in the band.
The area also tends to have much lower broadband penetration than in Western Europe, meaning that the benefits of proving widespread mobile broadband coverage at the lower digital dividend frequencies will be particularly strong.
The countries that met in Belgrade are: Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey.