Beauty contests often end up in the courts but auctions don't, so the conventional wisdom goes. But looking more closely we find that legal action over auctions is a fairly frequent occurrence. Read more...

There is ongoing momentum around the world as regulators continue to earmark unlicensed or lightly-licensed frameworks spectrum for shared use by localised private networks. The same holds true for unlicensed 6 GHz policy implementations and expanded sharing arrangements in the lower 6 GHz range. A more recent development pertains to… Read more...

While WRC-23 identified portions of the upper 6 GHz band for IMT, there is emergent consideration of sharing between Wi-Fi and IMT in the range. Spectrum sharing is also under investigation between terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks underpinned by the need for 6G to be sharing native by design. Read more...

Nations in Europe represent 49 per cent of nations globally that have assigned or plan to assign spectrum for private networks. Since PolicyTracker’s last private networks benchmark, published in June 2023, there has been a great deal of activity across Europe with new assignments planned in countries that have already… Read more...

The past 12 months has seen the leading economies wrestling with a new policy issue—satellite direct-to-device services—as well as assigning mid-band spectrum and finalising positions on 6 GHz. Read more...

Having recently delayed its planned 26 GHz and 40 GHz auction, UK regulator Ofcom remains focused on private spectrum access and developing a "hybrid sharing" solution for the upper 6 GHz band. Read more...

The exploding number of satellite constellations, and growing national and international interest in a range of space initiatives from communications to climate change monitoring, have sparked a policy push to determine whether more spectrum is needed to power space activities and if so, in what bands. This research note considers… Read more...

Nations across Africa continue to implement unlicensed 6 GHz policies that are largely focused on the lower portion of the band (5925—6425 MHz) in line with the African Telecommunication Union’s (ATU) recommended use of this range. In line with CEPT and European Commission harmonisation decisions, most European nations have opened… Read more...

Accurately monitoring and predicting trends in mobile data consumption is important for spectrum policymakers and spectrum users alike. This research note considers the recent slowdown in year-on-year data growth. Read more...

Amid the woes of the "Big Tech" companies in 2022, including wide-scale layoffs and project scale-backs, in 2023, Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft continue to advance spectrum policy agendas across an array of spectrum bands and sectors. Spectrum sharing and unlicensed spectrum are high on the spectrum policy agendas of… Read more...