France's regulator has launched a public consultation on the terms and methods for lifting the GSM-only restriction attached to 1800 MHz band frequency licences. At the time of writing, the consultation document is only available in French. Bouygues Telecom, the licence holder in the band, has applied to ARCEP for… Read more...

Reacting to a Direction from the UK government, Ofcom has set out its proposals for making the licences for 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2.1 GHz spectrum tradable. The first proposal is to allow all types of trade permitted by the Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006 to create maximum flexibility for… Read more...

Portuguese regulator ANACOM has published a draft version of a regulation laying down the rules for the forthcoming auction of spectrum in the 450 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2.1 GHz and 2.6 GHz bands. The regulation includes a proposal to introduce spectrum caps, which Anacom hopes will… Read more...

Ofcom has issued a consultation on requests for an increase of 3 dB in the maximum permissible base station power. The UK's four MNOs who have spectrum in the 1800 MHz band have all requested that the maximum permissible base station transmit power (e.i.r.p) is increased to 65 dBm. Ofcom's preliminary view is that the… Read more...

German regulator BNetzA (Federal Network Agency) has launched a consultation on its proposed multiband auction. It is planning to auction spectrum in the 700, 900, 1500 and 1800 MHz bands. Current licences at 900 and 1800 MHz expire at the end of 2016. As well as the consultation paper (in… Read more...

Ofcom has issued an update to a long-running consultation on its proposal to charge annual licence fees for spectrum in the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz bands that reflect their market value. Ofcom first issued a consultation on the issue in October last year, but is yet to release a statement on… Read more...

The Bahraini regulator TRA has published a consultation document with proposals for the award of individual licences and associated frequency licences for the delivery of mobile telecommunications services in the 900, 1800, 1900, 2100 and 2600 MHz bands.  The government’s Third National Telecommunications Plan calls for the provision of efficient… Read more...

The Venezuelan regulator has launched a brief consultation on how best to use the 2.6 GHz band in future. Several Venezuelan operators were previously issued with WiMAX licences in the band and in mid-2007 Movilmax launched commercial operations, passing 10,000 WiMAX subscribers in 2011. In April 2012 Movilmax announced it had scrapped… Read more...

The Norwegian regulator has launched a consultation on its proposed general framework for an auction of spectrum in the 1800 MHz band. These are the 1710-1725 MHz / 1805-1820 MHz frequencies (2 x 15 MHz) at the lower end of the band that were not sold in last year's auction.… Read more...

Europe's technical authority, the ECC has issued a consultation about a revision it plans to make to ECC Decision (08)08.  This revision includes updates for the use of mobile services in the 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, and 2.6 GHz bands on board vessels. In particular, the ECC seeks comments on… Read more...