Steady progress is being made in releasing 700 MHz for mobile with 30 auctions anticipated over the next three years. Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas are the furthest advanced but few definite plans have been made in Africa or central Asian countries. Read more...

Japan will be hosting the Olympic Games in 2020 and the country plans to use the event as a showcase for new technologies such as 5G. As a result, both its government and its operators are very active in testing the technology. Read more...

China's government and its three mobile network operators (MNOs) are actively preparing for 5G. The MNOs expect to launch commercial services by 2020. Read more...

Talk of a merger between US carriers T-Mobile and Sprint came to nothing but stimulated lots of discussion about how much spectrum they would have to give up. This made us wonder: do merging operators always have to give up spectrum? How do competition authorities decide how much divestiture is… Read more...

Despite better than expected revenues, the prices paid in Ireland suggest that operators regard 5G bands as a welcome addition rather than a prerequisite for a new era of mobile services. Read more...

In March 2017 the FCC assigned licences in the 600 MHz band by means of an incentive auction where broadcasters offered their spectrum through a reverse auction and this was made available to operators through a forward auction. Read more...

These graphs show the licences won by the five biggest winners in the 2017 US incentive auction. Read more...

Two years ago a large number of possible 5G bands were being proposed but short term plans are now focussed on just three ranges: 600/700 MHz, 3.5 GHz and 26/28 GHz. Despite the growing consensus, operators remain more sceptical than vendors or governments.  Read more...

The Brazilian regulator is one of many worldwide to have launched a consultation on using the 3.5 GHz band for 5G. However, it intends to focus on LTE-A in the band first. The regulator has also said that 5G auctions will be held after 2020, once global terms on bandwidth… Read more...

The OTT players offer services over the internet not access to it, so their priorities in spectrum policy are different to vendors or operators, whose business is the provision of infrastructure.  Read more...