This year’s big issue for national regulators: satellite direct-to-device

In-depth profiles of the individual 15 countries can be seen here, as well as overviews of the new developments. Most of the common threads are continuations of policy trends of the past few years, such as assigning mid-band spectrum and renewing expiring licences. Some regulators are also taking measures to encourage sharing in new and existing licences.

Regarding 6 GHz, making the lower portion available for unlicensed use and leaving the upper range for IMTInternational Mobile Telecommunications (I… remains the most popular option, but approaches are still evolving, with Japan and India yet to settle on final regulations for the entire band (Japan has opened the lower band for unlicensed use).

Most countries studied are continuing the process of making spectrum available for local 5G private networks. The most popular frequency ranges are 3.3—4.2 GHz, 26 GHz and 28 GHz.

The most striking change in the past 12 months has been the flurry of activity in satellite D2D with the most definite action coming from the FCC in the United States. It proposes to use secondary market leasing rules to facilitate satellite operator access to terrestrial spectrum in a range of candidate bands.

Australia is considering whether its existing regulations need revising and the UK and Canada have opened consultations on the issue. Brazil is taking a sandbox approach to allow D2D trials, while all the major Japanese operators have announced plans to launch services.

Other administrations will be watching these policy developments closely: expect further national regulatory activity as the implications of the pace-setters’ approaches become clear.