Should regulators use auctions for shared spectrum assignments?

A growing body of evidence suggests that 5G will involve some form of spectrum sharing. If the new generation of mobile networks will use spectrum in a fundamentally different way, then will spectrum assignments also be transformed?

In the past, new developments in mobile technology have ushered in new ways of assigning spectrum. In Europe, when 3G licences were assigned, spectrum auctions started to become increasingly popular.

Models for assigning shared spectrum in the future have already been discussed. Academics Gerard Pogorel and Erik Bohlin, for example, published a paper earlier this year arguing that spectrum for Licensed Shared Access should be assigned through a modified form of administered incentive pricing (AIP).

But according to Chris Woolford, director of international spectrum policy at UK regulator Ofcom, Europe’s national regulators are still pretty keen on auctions. Speaking after the most recent plenary of the Radio Spectrum Policy Group, the high level body that advises the European Commission on spectrum policy, he said: “auctions are here to stay”.

In the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is holding its own auction of shared spectrum. It is offering a total of 65 MHz of 1.7/2.1 GHz AWS-3 spectrum, some of which must be partly shared, indefinitely, with “federal and non-federal incumbents”. So far, the operators have bid $29.9 billion, almost three times as much as the reserve price of $10.6 billion.

Future shared networks will be very different from the type of localised sharing that US 3G and 4G operators will have to deal with in the AWS-3 bands, but the success of this auction may offer some pointers for the future.

It seems that however spectrum is to be assigned for 5G, auctions cannot be ruled out. 

Toby Youell, PolicyTracker

21/11/2014