Blighty watchdog Ofcom has a butcher's hook, clocks spectrum for 5G Ofcom has identified the spectrum bands in the UK for the much-hyped use of 5G, ahead of the yet-to-be-determined international standards for 5G. The first wave of commercial products is expected to be available in 2020. However, initial pre-commercial deployments are already expected to start from 2018. The Update on 5G …
Ofcom has identified a way to raise revenue selling spectrum licences.
It's not really anything to do with 5G
Also above 2.6GHz is really only femto cells and the cells are too big and ill-defined at 700MHz for decent speed/capacity. It's basic physics, the *G standard is irrelevant. The 5G can't magic decent mobile above 3GHz or capacity below 900MHz.
Build more masts and have smaller cells between 900MHz and 3GHz.
Set sensible licence conditions on coverage and capacity/speed to force the investment, otherwise ROI (Customer revenue vs number of masts) means it won't happen.
Have a single wholesale RAN for ALL mobile. Splitting spectrum between operators at LEAST results in loss of half capacity, or more, statistically, as at a cherry picked urban location one operator's mast sector could be oversubscribed while the others sit idle.
The problem is that regulators are no interested in efficiency or the consumer, but raising revenue. VAT serves that purpose better.
Ofcom's proposal is worthless, short term greed.
Agree, it would be far better to virtualise the spectrum allocation, have a per call, spectrum allocation set up fee, i.e. per call licensing, because operators are bound to set up phantom calls/data, just to fill out their available spectrum otherwise.
The other way, is to look to at the previous years allocation and allow underused spectrum to be taken back, allocated to other operators on a year by year basis (assuming they don't abuse the system ) Doing this on a per mast basis though doesn't sound as simple or beneficial to the taxpayer, as lump sum payments.
The interesting idea with this is you could allow 'set up fee credits' to pay operators each time a rural mast is used, to aid rural rollout.
5G as said before, will utilise cloud processing of RF signals, rather than on site line cards as much as possible, so there is a lot more you could do regards spectrum allocation , than large upfront licence auctions.
Ofcom need to move with the times.
Also above 2.6GHz is really only femto cells...
Has anyone done any decent research to detemine the effectiveness of trying to use frequencies that need "G" as a multiplier? Even allowing for the use of femto - cells building penetration is going to be a problem, along with the fact that as frequency increases refraction & reflection losses increase markedly along with increased attenuation by anything in the path. SHF is not known for being "line of sight" without good reason.
I would also expect that making a transmitter that can develop "useful" levels of power in a cellphone will also result in increased current consumption from the battery, with a corresponding reduction in useful battery life between charges.
“… it would be far better to address patchy 4G, with the UK having recently been found to have worse coverage than Albania.”
Credible citation required. Although this claim comes from OpenSignal, its 4G coverage maps for the UK and Albania make one wonder how it can be true. I can only conclude that those in Albania who have the OpenSignal app on their phones, and who can apparently pick up a 4G signal more consistently than their UK counterparts, don't leave the cities and major roads much.
(I heard an interview by the BBC's Radio 4 Today with a person in Albania about this story when it broke. It sounded as though they were talking over a low data-rate 2G connection…)
We're currrently in Wales, between everyone here: O2 and Vodafone are both 2G, EE is 4G, three is 3G. None are much good indoors 1-2 bars, given the Slate buildings/stone buildings we're in. It seems none can sustain an unbuffered YouTube stream indoors. We'd all use the App but it would probably skew the figures even more.
The Albania quote sounds about right regards Mobile for Wales at least, and given my experience of Scotland (outside Edinburgh and Glasgow) pretty similar there too.
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