Chapter 6 Re farming, Spectrum trading, M&A and Surrender
6.1
Re farming of spectrum
Spectrum redeployment or refarming of frequency bands is a process that will
need to be employed more and more often as existing and new applications
require more bandwidth (spectrum) and the subscriber number grows. The
growing demand for spectrum refarming has led to the development within the
ITU of a comprehensive Recommendation, ITU R SM.1603, Spectrum
redeployment as a method of national spectrum management .
ITU R SM.1603 states Spectrum redeployment (spectrum refarming) is a
combination of administrative, financial and technical measures aimed at
removing users or equipment of the existing frequency assignments either
completely or partially from a particular frequency band. The frequency band
may then be allocated to the same or different service(s). These measures
may be implemented in short, medium or long time scales.
In this Recommendation a number of scenarios for redeployment of frequency
spectrum are proposed including migration:
At the expiry of the current licence
At the end of the equipment's lifetime
To other frequency bands within the tuning range of the equipment
currently using the spectrum (e.g. equipment used by the military)
before either of the above
Into other frequency bands by:
-
Immediate licence cancellation
-
Prior notice that the licence will not be renewed beyond some
future date
-
Increasing the spectrum fees applied to the current spectrum
relative to alternative bands
To new technologies that are more spectrally efficient (e.g.
replacement of analogue technology with digital, or 2G technology
with 3G)
Apart from the first two examples all the other options may require regulatory
intervention to implement the change successfully.
The table below identifies some of the advantages and disadvantages of the
different options:
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