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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