There is no “best” approach for liberalising spectrum licensing, argue three experts with detailed knowledge of both countries. The optimal solution will vary from country to country and depends on factors like population size. Read more...

Spectrum liberalisation is at the heart of the UK government’s new plan to boost the digital economy. It takes a get tough approach over 900MHz refarming and says the UK digital dividend should be harmonised with the rest of Europe. Read more...

It’s now official: the US switchover from analogue to digital broadcasting is to be delayed from February 17 to June 12 following the second vote in a week in the House of Representatives. Read more...

The next generation of wireless technologies would ideally like something that regulators would never grant: 100MHz of downlink spectrum. Study groups see bandwidth aggregation as a possible solution but variation in regulatory approaches could make this difficult to implement. Read more...

The administration of the Russian Federation has proposed updating the International Mobile Telecommunications suite of radio interface technologies to quickly include new duplex methods, according to Yury Trofimov of Russia's Radio Research and Development Institute. Read more...

Our top story this month is the Whitespace coalition launching a European campaign to get access to the unused portions of the broadcasting spectrum. Read more...

New US President Barrack Obama’s attempt to delay the switchover from analogue to digital television from February 17 to June 12 was derailed yesterday (28 January) when the proposal failed to get the necessary two thirds majority in the House of Representatives. Read more...

The large-scale introduction of 3G in India continues to be put back with inter-Ministry squabbles, lawsuits, the economic crisis and a looming general election all helping to delay the auctions which would allow commercial operators to deploy services. Read more...

China is finally issuing 3G licences but these are for specific technologies, including the home grown TD-SCDMA standard. Read more...

The computer and electronics giants which persuaded the US to open up licence-exempt spectrum “white spaces” for cognitive radio are now calling on European nations to follow suit. However, officials say regulatory, technical and economic issues must be ironed out first. Read more...