Spectrum sharing now on the table for mobile players

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 mobile services rely on access to growing amounts of spectrum to meet demand and… spectrum sharing can help, when clearing a band is not possible,” said the GSMA’s Laurent Bodusseau in a blog post. 

The position paper follows the GSMA’s warning that governments are not giving mobile operators enough access to the spectrum they need to deploy 5G adequately.

Even though the association emphasised the need for the right conditions and sharing framework, this could be considered as a major turning point. It is the first time the GSMA has publicly supported sharing spectrum.

While the announcement may come as a surprise, spectrum sharing advocates recently told us that once mobile carriers realised the full benefits of dynamic spectrum access (DSA), they would start supporting it.

So what conclusions can be drawn from this? Perhaps governments and regulators will now pay more attention to dynamic access models.

Spectrum sharing seems to be gaining key allies in the major economies. Will this mean that the debate between the mobile industry and DSA advocates in the UK will finally be settled?

And will this statement convince Ofcom to facilitate sharing in the 3.6-3.8 GHz band?