Regulation, Global: World Radiocommunication Conferences (WRCs) are held every two to three years, and are the process where the international rules that govern the use of radio spectrum are agreed. These conferences are part of a process run by the International Telecommunication Union. WRCs exist to ensure that radio spectrum can be used for the benefit of all nations, without causing harmful interference.

As part of the WRC, spectrum bands that can be used for mobile services, such as 3G, are decided on. The next WRC will be in Geneva, in October 2007, and one of the main issues will be extra spectrum for 3G mobile services. The identification of future spectrum for 3G mobile is important to ensure that there is suitable capacity to cope with high bandwidth data services, as well as suitable spectrum for covering rural areas economically. Spectrum for mobile broadband in rural areas is required to help combat the digital divide in developed and developing markets.

The following paper was presented to nearly 200 regulators in Geneva last month, at the WRC Conference Preparatory Meeting. This briefing note is part of an ongoing lobbying process to represent GSMA members' and mobile consumer interests across the globe.

Continued Economic Development Through Communications

Over the last decade mobile communications and the Internet have both become established as mass-market platforms in the developed world, yielding significant benefits to consumers, industry and national economies. For example, a recent UK study [1] estimated that the net benefit to the UK economy of public mobile communications (predominantly GSM and IMT-2000) was €31.6 Bn per annum, or over €500 per capita. This represented a growth in real terms of over 50% in the four years since 2002. A study commissioned by Cisco [2] estimated that adoption of Internet based business solutions in the USA would result in cumulative revenue growth of €1,200 Bn and cost savings of over €400 Bn by 2010, equivalent to an increase in annual productivity growth of 0.43%.

Extending these benefits to developing countries with limited legacy ICT infrastructure is a significant challenge. This can be tackled effectively using third generation mobile technologies like IMT-2000, which build on the success of GSM in delivering affordable voice and basic data services. There is growing demand for mobile data in many developing countries, for example to provide low cost financial transactions in areas remote from conventional banking facilities, and to access news and information services [3].

IMT-2000 technology has the potential to provide broadband data services comparable to those already taken for granted in the developed world to the majority of the world’s population. However, progress will depend very much on network and terminal costs, which in turn will depend on timely access to appropriate radio spectrum. In particular, access to frequencies below those currently available for broadband mobile services (i.e. below the 800 / 900 MHz bands) could extend IMT-2000 coverage to rural populations that would otherwise go without.

Access to these lower frequencies will also directly benefit developed countries by improving the availability of high quality indoor coverage available from existing network infrastructure. In densely populated countries, up to 25% fewer sites may be required to provide high quality indoor coverage if lower frequencies are available. This results in lower infrastructure costs, faster service rollout and a reduced environmental impact.

Both developed and developing countries urgently need frequencies below 1GHz in order to offer mobile broadband services outside the 30% of territories that are currently covered with 3G at 2.1 GHz. 3G at 900 MHz does provide a partial solution, but :

• these frequencies are heavily used by GSM today
• in many countries not all operators currently have access to the 900 MHz and continued operation of GSM with simultaneous operation of UMTS for all operators is unlikely considering the very limited size of the band.

Key Spectrum Requirements

To ensure continued expansion of broadband mobile coverage throughout the world, two key requirements for radio spectrum must be fulfilled:

i) Access to sufficient bandwidth in lower frequency bands than those currently used for broadband mobile services, in order to reduce the number of base stations and hence the infrastructure costs. This will make it possible to serve sparsely populated areas and provide reliable, high quality indoor coverage.

ii) Allocation of common frequency bands on an international basis, so that sufficient manufacturing economies of scale can be achieved and low cost handsets become available to take advantage of these lower frequency bands.

Network Coverage Benefits

The benefit of increased coverage arising from use of lower frequency bands can be substantial, especially in large countries with dispersed populations. As mobile network coverage expands progressively into less populated areas, the number of potential subscribers that can be served by each additional base station diminishes, and eventually the potential revenue that can be generated by the additional base station becomes lower than the cost incurred by the network. It is therefore uneconomic for the network operator to extend coverage much beyond a certain point. However, by providing access to lower frequencies the coverage per base station is increased significantly, resulting in a corresponding increase in the economically viable coverage area.

Figure 1 and Table 1 show the potential benefits of improved population coverage resulting from the use of a lower frequency band to some example countries [4]. This analysis is based on the benefits for mobile voice telephony: further benefits will be generated in the future by access to the reliable, high bandwidth data services that IMT-2000 networks and their successors will provide. In addition, improved access to on-line information will enhance the quality of health and education services, boosting individual well-being and productivity. On-line banking and trading have the potential to boost trade significantly as well as reducing transaction costs for businesses and consumers, as illustrated by the widespread use of mobile cash transfers already taking place in countries like the Philippines [5].

Need for Common Frequency Bands to support Low Cost Terminals

Realisation of these benefits will of course depend on affordable terminals. A global initiative is underway to develop low-cost terminals to meet the needs of developing countries, with a target unit cost of $30 or less. In order to produce high quality terminals at low cost, large economies of scale are needed and sale volumes of tens of millions per annum will be required to lower prices for the consumer. Such volumes cannot be supported by national markets, especially in lower income countries where mobile penetration is lower and handset replacement less frequent than in developed markets. Agreement on common frequency bands, at least at the regional level, will therefore have a significant impact on lowering the cost of terminals. This is essential, if mobile phone users are to gain the full benefits of access to lower frequencies. The choice of common frequency band should therefore be made to allow as many countries as possible to adopt that band.

Future Bandwidth Needs

As well as lower frequency bands to maximise coverage, additional spectrum will also be required to satisfy projected traffic demand for high bandwidth mobile services in densely populated areas. It is likely that sufficient bandwidth can only be found at higher frequencies than those currently identified for IMT-2000. Various studies [6] forecast that new services will be developed that will require high bandwidth and low latency radio access. Therefore bands large enough to accommodate such needs should be identified at WRC-07 to be available during the next decade.

Notes:

1] “Economic impact of the use of radio spectrum in the UK”, report by Europe Economics for Ofcom, 2006

2] “Net Impact Study: Projected Economic Benefits of the Internet In the US, UK, France and Germany”, Varian. Litan, Elder and Shutter, January 2002

3] For example, the UK British Broadcasting Corporation recently revealed that 87% of international traffic to its WAP site originated in Africa

4] Source: Independent study undertaken by Aegis Systems and IDATE for GSMA.

5] see “Micro-payment systems and their application to mobile networks”, infoDev / IFC / GSMA report, January 2006

6] ITU-R Report M. 2072 “World mobile telecommunication market forecast” , IPTS Report EUR 21673 “The Demand for Future Mobile Communications Markets and Services in Europe”, mITF Flying Carpet Report “World mobile telecommunication market forecast”