Regional Round-up
A European Commission hearing on the Digital Dividend took place on 6th March in Brussels and was attended by European operators and manufacturers. It was an opportunity to: stress that the mobile industry will use the spectrum to roll out a full range of broadband services, not just mobile TV as claimed by some broadcasters; make a case against reserving spectrum for specialist (eg emergency) services, and encourage European countries to align around a harmonised set of frequencies to realise the potential economies of scale. The GSMA briefing paper submitted to the hearing can be downloaded here.
In Germany, the Federal government has become the latest in Europe to formally approve the allocation of 790-862MHz for mobile use. It has published a directive calling for frequencies in the 790-862MHz band to be used for mobile broadband services in rural regions. If approved by Germany's Bundesrat (federal council) in May, the German regulator (BNA) will be able to begin allocating the frequencies to service providers before the end of this year.
German mobile operator E-Plus, equipment vendor Ericsson and the German state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern have launched a mobile broadband pilot using Digital Dividend frequencies.
In France, ARCEP has launched a public consultation to help inform the French administration of its decision on the award of the spectrum licences for the 800MHz frequency band, as well as the 2.6GHz band. In February, the town of Coulommiers, near Paris, became the first pilot to go all-digital when analogue broadcasting ceased.
In Greece, the GSMA spoke at a high level workshop in Athens on February 24th hosted by the EETT (Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission) entitled - "Digital Dividend: Challenges and Opportunities in the New Digital Era". Keynote speakers included the Minister of Transport and Communications (Mr Evripidis Stylianidis) and Mrs Katerina Batzeli, MEP (Chairwoman of the European Parliament Committee on Culture and Education). The workshop discussed the benefits of making spectrum available in the line with the CEPT and ITU (790 to 862 MHz), noting that whilst digital television is important, so is the need to boost broadband coverage in Greece to promote social cohesion and combat the digital divide. It also noted the importance of broadband for economic growth and job creation. However it was clear that the bands 790 to 862 MHz are currently planned for digital broadcasting use after analogue switch-off, and this would need careful consideration. The conference proposed (amongst other things) setting up a coordination body of the various stakeholders, to design a national strategy in 2009 to release spectrum and develop a Digital Dividend. Preferably the band 790 to 862 MHz might be made available. More information will be published here.
Serbia recently completed a consultation on the Digital Dividend. The GSMA response is available for download here.
Belgium is also undertaking a consultation on the Digital Dividend. The GSMA response is available for download here.
Forthcoming Events
- The Czech Republic is hosting a seminar on Switchover and Digital Dividend on 17th -18th March. The GSMA will be participating in this event.
- European Regions for better ICT connections is hosting a conference in Turin on 2nd-3rd April where the Digital Dividend will be discussed: "Broadband and EU action in the recovery plan".Find out more.
- The PolicyTracker Public Sector Spectrum Conference will take place on April 21st -22nd at the Hotel Chatelain, Brussels. Find out more.
- The 4th Annual European Spectrum Management Conference will take place fromJune 15th – 17th at The Management Centre Europe in Brussels. There is an exclusive 10% discount on registration for this event for GSMA Digital Dividend e-newsletter subscribers. Find out more.
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Welcome to the third edition of the GSMA Digital Dividend newsletter. The rapidly growing subscription base to this newsletter demonstrates the high level of interest in this debate in countries all around the world, and underlines how important Digital Dividend spectrum is to the future roll-out of mobile broadband. Significant momentum is building in favour of mobile’s request for at least 100Mhz of harmonised spectrum. At the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona we heard commitments from European governments and key officials on the desire for harmonised Digital Dividend spectrum. We also heard from industry about how mobile broadband through the allocation of Digital Dividend spectrum will help lift economies out of recession.
