Response to "Proposals For The Licensing Of Radio Spectrum At 28 GHz" - FEI

Dear Cliff,

In response to BFWACG Document (00)19, FEI wishes to summarise our views, including those expressed in our responses to the original Consultation "Wireless in the Information Age", Document BFWACG (00)12 on alternative licence award procedures, and our several communications with David Hendon. FEI remains convinced that spectrum must not be wasted through the failure of operators who secure spectrum without the organisational, financial and technical resources to deploy and operate service profitably, and that licensing must proceed with the minimum of delay.

Our comments regarding the specific points made in the licensing proposals are:

• We have already presented our arguments in favour of licence award by comparative selection¹, and support the adoption of TR13-02 channel plans in the 28GHz band².
  The motive for assignment of spectrum licences through an auction has been declared to be that it ensures that the licences go to those who value them most. This approach may be acceptable where there is a single licence on offer and no other access technologies to provide competition in services. In the case of BFWA however, where it is acknowledged that there are competing access methods, FEI suggests that the RA should be adopting a method of licence assignment that gives the licensees assistance to compete against those other access methods, and not to disadvantage them by increasing the capital investment requirement. Further, we contend that the process of setting the auction reserve prices will require an assessment of market demand very similar to that needed for Administrative pricing.
  FEI suggests that the Agency should avoid potentially restricting innovation in the provision of services by offering equal spectrum blocks. We recommend that one or more of the 112MHz blocks are divided into 2 x 56MHz or 56MHz + 2 x 28MHz blocks to allow smaller scale services to be offered.

• FEI does not believe that any operator should be excluded from the opportunity to bid for spectrum³.
• FEI supports the proposal that would allow participants to offer a national service.
• We have already expressed our strong support for "the premise that there should be no restrictions on the applications which the fixed networks may be used to provide" ⁴. We remain convinced that this would both encourage a more rapid adoption of new services and would ensure that operators remain free to deploy and operate profitable services. FEI believe that it should be sufficient to mandate the use of internationally agreed standards for deployment of BFWA equipment, leaving the application development to the individual operators and vendors.
• FEI agrees that the assignment of considerable amounts of spectrum should not be left unmonitored, and have recommended that the RA agree with each licensee a roll out plan within their overall business plan⁵. We have suggested that if the roll out plan has not reached its planned level 24 months after the licence award it should be withdrawn. However, the assignment of spectrum and award of licences must also take into account problems of access due to existing users of that spectrum.

In addition to the above comments on the proposals made, we perceive that there remain many additional outstanding issues, which have not yet been the subject of detailed consultation, including:

• Licence duration.
• Guard bands and emissions at block edges.
• Emissions at geographic region edges.
• Use of the "extra" 56 MHz.
• Reservation of spectrum / region(s) for new entrant.
• Planning requirements.
• Spectrum strategy.
• Co-ordination of deployments.

FEI are disappointed that these issues have not yet been addressed by further consultation, and we therefore take this opportunity to contribute our comments on these issues.

We look forward to seeing the draft licence award process design as soon as possible, and for further information on the number and design of regions.

Yours sincerely,

Simon Wilson (signed by pc)

Simon Wilson
Director, Radio

Direct line: 020 7331 2028
Mobile: 07703 582457
Email: swilson@fei.org.uk

FEI Comments on Additional Outstanding Issues

Licence duration

The term of the spectrum licences should be compatible with the Telecommunications Act licences so that a successful bidder has certainty over their authorisation to provide services. We have already suggested that the licence duration should be for a period of 20 years.

Guard bands and emissions at block edges

In a competitive market where operators will have paid what they believe to be the market value for spectrum we suggest that it is unrealistic to depend on inter-operator co-operation to resolve spectrum planning difficulties. Indeed, a dominant operator may use non co-operation to commercial advantage. For these reasons we advocate that absolute values for emissions at the block edges should be set.

If this approach is adopted there is no need to specify hard guard bands between the BFWA spectrum packages. The effect would be that each operator would either need to build in a guard band sufficient to protect their neighbour or use equipment with lower out of band / spurious emission characteristics.

Emissions at geographic region edges

Clearly where the same spectrum in adjacent regions is assigned to one operator that operator will probably ignore the regional boundary. We suggest that there should be no regulation to prevent such an operator providing service across boundaries, i.e. a CS in one region serving a TS in another region.

Co-ordination will be necessary across boundaries but only between operators assigned the same spectrum. We believe that it would be realistic to expect co-operation between these operators at boundary edges. The block edge limits advocated above would protect other operators in adjacent regions. A related issue will be the definition of the RA role in this co-ordination process.

Use of the "extra" 56MHz

If it is agreed that guard bands are integral with the spectrum packages then the "extra" 56MHz can be either divided between the three proposed 112 MHz blocks or set up as a fourth block.

However, whilst there is uncertainty over the availability of this 56MHz of spectrum, FEI believes it should be left unassigned. When it is clear that the spectrum is available an appropriate method for its assignment as an additional 56MHz block should be chosen.

Reservation of spectrum / region(s) for new entrant

We note from the recent Consultative Group meeting that the reservation of a spectrum block for a new entrant is being considered, with the aim of increasing competition. FEI would welcome a DTI/Oftel perspective on the need to increase competition.

Planning requirements

FEI believes that there should be a clear statement made regarding any ramifications of the recent Stewart Report publication on the planning regime that will apply to BFWA CS sites. The statement should also include any rules relating to the deployment of TS’s.

Spectrum Strategy

To assist potential operators in completing their business plans, FEI believe that a clear statement on the future availability of spectrum blocks in other frequency bands should be made.

Co-ordination of deployments

FEI believe that an essential tool in the co-ordination of BFWA deployments will be the publication of assignment details. This is an area that we are actively pursuing in the mobile and fixed link units, and suggest that a combined project which accounts for all sectors must be completed in time for immediate use once BFWA licences have been awarded.

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1 - Refs. FEI 00/143 "FEI Comments on Alternative Licence Award Procedure" 5/4/00 - letter to Joe Sonke, and FEI 99/567 Rev 2 "FEI Response to the Radiocommunications Agency Consultation Document" 27/9/99 - question 11.

2 - Ref. FEI 99/567 - question 13.

3 - Ref. FEI 99/567 - question 10.

4 - Refs. RA Consultation "Wireless in the Information Age" - question 14, FEI 99/567 - question 14, FEI 99/630 Rev 1 "FEI follow up to the Radiocommunications Agency Consultation Document" 2/11/99 - letter to Dave Toman, and FEI 00/079 Rev 3 "Broadband Fixed Wireless Access in the UK" - letter to David Hendon.

5 - Ref. FEI 99/567 - question 18.

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