Fight Over UHF Band in Europe Could Continue Another 10 Years

The pandemic has meant an “acceleration” in the demand for wireless, said Andreas Geiss, European Commission head of unit-spectrum policy. Sharing must be “brought into the picture much more,” he said. Regulators need to encourage innovation while avoiding fragmentation, he said: “We need sharing solutions that also have economies of scale.”

The EC agreed to dedicate the 470-694 MHz UHF band to broadcast TV through 2030, but at some point decisions will have to be made on the most efficient use, Geiss said. “It’s a huge challenge, for administrations, for industry, not only at the European level,” he said, but, “We have some time.”

Low-band spectrum is critical to high speeds in rural areas and closing the digital divide, said Jeremy Godfrey, commissioner at Ireland’s ComReg. Broadcast TV is in decline there with the popularity of satellite TV, but regulators remain concerned about public service broadcasting and preserving it for terrestrial viewers, he said. Regulators in each country will decide whether they need broadcast TV when other alternatives are widely available, he said: “That will be an important and varied political debate.” Godfrey said the EU needn’t wait until 2030 to address UHF and should develop a European position for the next World Radiocommunication Conference in 2023.

Philip Marnick, Ofcom group director-spectrum, said regulators are looking for “balance” on the UHF band. “TV and content is really important,” he said. “People still use it. People still want it.” Carriers are pressing to use spectrum for broadband, he said. How do regulators open the band “without necessarily always throwing somebody out?” he asked.

The conference demonstrated deepening conflicts in Europe between wireless providers and regulators, said Tim Miller, partner at Plum Consulting. “How do you define what a spectrum operator is and how do you make sure that the people who are controlling the spectrum actually have the ability to do so?” Questions remain about the balance between licensed and unlicensed spectrum and the UHF band's future, he said. The year after a WRC, sectors start to think about their positions at the next session, he said. “We seem to have reached … conflict much quicker than normal.”

Demand for broadcast TV continues to be strong in most European markets, especially with broadcasters squeezed into a smaller amount of spectrum with 700, 800 and 900 MHz shifted to carriers for broadband, said Mark Colville, principal at Analysys Mason. The question becomes how much more sub-1 GHz do carriers need, he said. “For a basic coverage layer, arguably, the answer is not that much.” With higher bands being made available, “the portion of network that is coming from sub-1 GHz spectrum is shrinking,” he said, noting European nations have a different stance depending on how many people in each still watch broadcast TV.

The FCC’s citizens broadband radio service band auction will be watched worldwide as a key test of whether carriers are willing to share spectrum, said consultant Johanne Lemay of Lemay-Yates Associates. The U.S. has more than 340 applicants to bid in the CBRS auction, which is “a pretty big auction,” Lemay said. “It will give us a very good insight into the real value that mobile carriers put on shared spectrum.” she said. “Are they truly interested in putting money down?”

Europe is deciding whether to dedicate 500 MHz or all 1.2 GHz of the 6 GHz band to unlicensed, as the U.S. just did (see 2006240049), and that’s “the trillion dollar question,” Lemay said. “That’s not a debate that’s over by any stretch of the imagination in the EU.”