An increasing number of regulators around the world are allowing unlicensed use of the 6 GHz band. Change in this policy area has been so rapid that we have now updated our 6 GHz benchmarking service, which was first published in June. As we summarise in the Research Note 6 GHz… Read more...

The 5G Observatory is funded by the European Commission and assesses progress towards EU policy goals by reporting and analysing the latest 5G developments. Titled 5G in the Digital Decade, this free stakeholder workshop will present the main findings from the third year of the project, providing an overview of the progress… Read more...

In 1961 the USSR launched the 'space race' by successfully sending Yuri Gagarin to space, and back. Sixty years on, we are again in another 'space race'. But aside from competition to put actors into space the current race is not between Roscosmos and NASA, but is between a plethora… Read more...

Moore's law states that computing power effectively doubles every two years. In the telecoms industry, a similar kind of law seems to apply, in that a new generation of mobile technology arrives every 10 years. Now that 5G is commercially available in some places, private and public sector actors are… Read more...

One of the perennial problems in spectrum management is that new demands come faster than ways to clear the airwaves. New technologies are always in development, but even with the most competent spectrum managers, it usually take years or even decades to clear frequencies for new uses. Seeing as 6G… Read more...

New iteration of PolicyTracker Spectrum Database tracks 11 auctions across six bands. The last three months included two potentially expensive spectrum auctions. Operators in one of these countries, Pakistan, largely shunned the award; but Canadian operators ended up paying record prices. These auction results are reported in the 2021 Q3… Read more...

Spectrum management is complicated. Engineers, lawyers, policy makers and investors all think about spectrum in different ways. Further, many different types of organizations are relevant for spectrum management, and they often have viewpoints that conflict with each other. These views also seem to vary by region. Even allocations for the… Read more...

Being a confusing subject, spectrum managers often resort to talking about frequencies as if it is land. This is intuitive because many spectrum policy concepts apply to real estate too. A usage right can be thought of as owning land, while technical limits on usage resemble planning permission rules. It… Read more...

There is still time to book for our Valuing the Spectrum and Spectrum Auctions online training courses which are being held in two weeks time. These two-day courses are essential for anyone involved in buying or selling spectrum licences and there is a discount for booking them together. Valuing the Spectrum… Read more...

Despite all of the controversy surrounding identifying spectrum for mobile broadband above 24 GHz, most of the recent 5G deployments have been in the mid-band frequencies, specially around 3.5 GHz. Earlier this year, acting FCC Commissioner, Jessica Rosenworcel, praised the FCC's pivot from high-bands to mid-bands. But as we document… Read more...