Spectrum availability is a key factor among countries wishing to "win" the race to 5G. All of the major economies are planning spectrum awards, and the choice of band and auction design is unique to each situation. While some countries emphasise speed to market, others emphasise competition between mobile operators,… Read more...

Our country Research Notes have been updated for 2019 and now include population density maps. Population density is a crucial factor for most wireless services: it determines how many people can receive them and so the economic viability of a product or the cost of reaching most of the population. The population… Read more...

    Dear colleague, It's Christmas here in the UK, when many of us will be relaxing, eating too much and watching lots of TV. It's also a time for looking back over the past year and looking forward to the new one. PolicyTracker only exists because of our subscribers,… Read more...

As another year draws to a close, we thought we'd look back at some of 2018's most significant spectrum news. Future historians of 5G are likely to think of 2018 as a defining year. South Korea, Italy and the US became the first countries to auction mmWave spectrum. Others such as Spain, Australia,… Read more...

Our vendor profiles have been fully updated for 2019. The analysis, based on extensive interviews, reveal a unified understanding of the bands that will be used for early 5G deployments and the best ways that regulators should make them available. We have also identified greater clarity among vendors with respect… Read more...

Although spectrum policy involves many stakeholders, ultimately it is mobile operators who are serving the mass markets and have to ensure their 5G business model works. Operators in Europe have recently been found to have been willing to pay $0.42/MHz/POP in for C-Band spectrum, and current bidding for 28 GHz… Read more...

For the past three years we have published the leading resource for sector professionals seeking to understand future directions in 4G and 5G spectrum. The new edition has been updated for 2019 and is now available for purchase. For the first time it includes an analysis of the satellite sector,… Read more...

An O2 network failure in the UK has shown how mobile underpins vital infrastructure but is Huawei the right target for our national security fears? Even the EU is now expressing concerns. Chinese technology companies are an emerging powerhouse and banning them may soon be impractical as well as self-defeating. Read more...

The mobile industry association (GSMA) has indicated its willingness to start sharing spectrum. It said in a position paper that sharing can play a complementary role to traditional spectrum licensing by allowing mobile services to access new bands where there are no other reasonable alternatives. "The continued rise in data traffic means… Read more...

Our Research Notes on 5G spectrum have been updated here, covering the developments of the past year and progress for IMT identifications in mmWave bands at the ITU November WRC-19 Inter-Regional Workshop. Read more...