Ofcom snatches spectrum from SPIES for mobile broadband

UK regulator Ofcom has put together a guide (PDF) for how radio spectrum should be used. It’s a mix of a plan and a request for input from the warring factions that use it, but provides a good starting point in the farming process. There is a principle that a new mobile technology appears every 10 years or so, which would put …

[Andrew Oakley]

Not THAT Spectrum

This is not the Cold War retro Sinclair 50-year-rule story you were looking for. Move along.

[Mage]

Ofcom Interests

1) Selling spectrum licences to people with deep pockets

2) Not actually policing anything, hence the Broadcast damaging "White space".

They are not fit guardians of a one off national resource. It's not like regulation of Baked Beans production.

[JaitcH]

Every time I see a spectrum chart ...

then watch/glance at a TV program I think what a waste of resources. Scan satellite TV channels and my thoughts are redoubled - numerous channels have duplicated content.

In larger population areas terrestrial TV can easily be carried over fibre optics and in the less populated country areas Low Power Transmitters could be used to distribute the TV signals, fed through fibre optic trunks. These would re-use the same, small, band across the country.

LPTs are common in many larger countries, if their programming choices are limited, so be it - it's one of the joys of living in such places.

How many people really need hundreds of channels from which to choose? So many resources could be better utilised.

My employer manufactures robotic devices for military/government uses and these days we have to supply Software Defined Radio systems with frequency agility. The control unit is turned on and for about 5-10 minutes it surveys the spectrum, then chooses the frequencies it will use, transmits that to slave units and away it goes. No need for spectrum charts.

The military wastes so much spectrum, just scan their designated areas and see just how under utilised it is in non-combat zones. Combat Zones are a different beast, and the military doesn't even consider spectrum allocations. Anyone who has done RF technical work know that the military doesn't give a damn about civilian allocations.