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Executive summary

1.1 Ofcom has been leading UK preparations for the World Radiocommunication Conference 2007 (WRC 07) of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Agenda item 1.4 of the conference deals with spectrum requirements for the future development of advanced mobile wireless communications systems or “IMT”^(-1-).

1.2 The ITU’s Radio Regulations contain a Table of Frequency Allocations. These “allocate” services such as Fixed, Mobile, Broadcast and Satellite to particular frequency bands. Some radio services are given a “primary” allocation which gives them a particular status with respect to neighbouring territories. For example, stations of such a service may claim protection from interference from services which have a “secondary” allocation or services operating without an allocation in that frequency band.

1.3 The Radio Regulations also “identify” certain frequency bands as being suitable for an application within a broad service allocation – for example IMT-2000. Such an identification does not prevent the use of other applications of the relevant radio service. It gives no elevated status, either with respect to other primary radio services or with respect to other applications within the same radio service and it does not prevent the application from being used in bands other than those with identifications.

1.4 Although identification for an application does not elevate an application’s regulatory status, there is merit in this process for particular applications. In the case of mass-market public cellular networks, the frequency bands identified become the bands that administrations around the world are most likely to make available for that application. These are the bands where high volumes of equipment are developed and the benefits of economies of scale flow from this.

1.5 Most of the focus of agenda item 1.4 is on selecting frequency bands where WRC-07 could add an identification for IMT in the Radio Regulations. Some of the candidate bands, however, do not have an allocation to the mobile service or only have a secondary allocation. If those bands were to be identified for IMT, then it would be necessary to also add a primary allocation to the mobile service in the Radio Regulations.

1.6 The candidate frequency bands under consideration in the ITU for identification for IMT at WRC 07 are:

Table 1: Candidate bands

Candidate band	Anticipated use
410 to 430 MHz	Bands which are attractive for the coverage extension of current IMT-2000 systems
450 to 470 MHz
470 to 862 MHz	Coverage extension and possibly providing capacity requirements
2300 to 2400 MHz	Bands which are attractive for providing the capacity requirements for IMT-Advanced
2700 to 2900 MHz
3400 to 3600 MHz
3600 to 3800 MHz
3800 to 4200 MHz
4400 to 4990 MHz

1.7 This document sets out for consultation Ofcom’s proposals for the positions the UK should take towards agenda item 1.4 and in particular towards the candidate bands currently under consideration. These are:

• to support efforts to keep the IMT-Advanced family as open and flexible as possible;
• to support a non-binding identification of spectrum for IMT but keep this as generic as possible (i.e. for IMT rather than IMT-Advanced);
• to support changing existing identifications from IMT-2000 to IMT to foster greater flexibility in their use;
• to support the development of a European Common Proposal for a primary mobile service allocation in the band 470 to 862 MHz at WRC 07 and a Resolution for ITU R to study the band for an identification for IMT at WRC 11;
• to support the development of a European Common Proposal for a co-primary allocation to the mobile service and identification for IMT in the bands 3400 to 3600 MHz and 3600 to 3800 MHz;
• to oppose any change to the allocations or a IMT identification in the band 2700 to 2900 MHz at WRC-07; and
• to adopt a neutral approach to the remaining candidate bands.

1.8 All of these positions should be read in the context of the likely changes to the International Radio Regulations that will result from the conclusions of WRC-07. Such decisions do not necessarily imply changes to regulatory policy in the UK. In the case of Government spectrum holdings, any changes to regulatory policy would need to be consistent with the Government response^(-2-) to the Independent Audit of Spectrum Holdings^(-3-) lead by Professor Martin Cave.

1.9 This consultation, published on 27 February 2007, is for a period of 5 weeks in order to obtain stakeholder responses in time for the CEPT meetings of the Electronic Communications Committee Project Team 1 (ECC PT1) and the Conference Preparatory Group (CPG) in April, where we expect ECP’s to be finalised. The closing date for responses is 30 March 2007. See Annex 1 for details of how to respond to this consultation.

Footnotes:

1.- Within the International Telecommunication Union these systems are known as International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT), a term which encompasses IMT 2000 (3G systems) and IMT Advanced (previously known as ‘systems beyond IMT 2000’)

2.- http://www.spectrumaudit.org.uk/pdf/governmentresponse.pdf

3.- http://www.spectrumaudit.org.uk/pdf/20051118%20Final%20Formatted%20v9.pdf

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• WRC 07 agenda item 1.4 [pdf]
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