Japan has a tradition of close cooperation between industry and government in the mobile industry that, while not fractured, is undergoing some creative tension. Read more...

The Modi government is intent on modernising spectrum policy but its attempts to reduce reserve prices in the upcoming mega-auction are meeting heavy resistance. Read more...

A key objective of South Korea’s recent spectrum policy culminated in the symbolic launch of commercial 5G mobile services by the country’s three operators simultaneously on the same day (3 April). A national effort between government and industry was seen to bear fruit, as the country narrowly beat the US… Read more...

China has a tightly organised, top-down approach to spectrum in which the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) uses the allocation of radio frequencies as a tool to engineer the marketplace Read more...

Granted a 5G commercial licence in June 2019, China Mobile is now pushing to speed development of 5G services in its highly competitive home market. As of August 2019, it had 935 million mobile customers, with 734 million on 4G. Read more...

Japanese operator SoftBank was assigned new spectrum in the 3.7 GHz and 28 GHz bands for 5G, and is focused on high-altitude platforms for the Internet of Things and 5G.  The proposed merger of its US segment Sprint with T-Mobile looks set to be approved, while Sprint is deploying 5G… Read more...

A mobile broadband pioneer, South Korea completed a major spectrum auction in 2018, but has no medium-term plans for future awards. Read more...

The Indian operator is frequently name-checked as a model for successfully breaking into a mobile market with its straight-to-4G, data-only strategy. But Reliance Jio Infocomm looks like a one-off: finding another visionary, billionaire backer like Mukesh Ambani, willing to invest a significant chunk of his capital in spectrum and infrastructure… Read more...

The Indian regulator is planning a major 5G auction soon, but the country's mobile operators are currently in no hurry to spend big money on more spectrum. Two of the three biggest operators - Vodafone and Idea Cellular - have now completed a merger. Read more...

China Mobile operates only in its home country but has the world's largest 4G network by number of subscribers. Under its "Big Connectivity" strategy, it remains focused on leading the development of the mobile market while continuing its strong participation in global 5G activities. The operator initially favours C-band for… Read more...