Award of available spectrum: 10 GHz, 28 GHz, 32 GHz and 40 GHz: Spectrum packaging and auction design

Ofcom’s Spectrum Framework Review: Implementation Plan (‘SFR: IP’), issued on 13 January 2005, included provisional proposals on the award of wireless telegraphy licences for 10 GHz, 28 GHz, 32 GHz and 40 GHz (the ‘spectrum bands’). These bands are the subject of the award process covered by this document.

Following consideration of responses to the proposals in the SFR: IP, on 29 June 2006 Ofcom published a consultation document setting out its detailed proposals for awarding wireless telegraphy licences to use the spectrum bands 10 GHz, 28 GHz and 32 GHz and to defer the award of 40 GHz (the ‘June consultation’). Ofcom held a public seminar on the proposals on 28 July. In the light of points raised in responses to its proposals, Ofcom published a discussion document on 11 January 2007 (the ‘January discussion document’) that proposed revised packaging of the spectrum available in the 10 GHz band, inclusion of the 40 GHz band in the award and the award of licences by a combinatorial clock auction. It held a public seminar on 30 January 2007 to present these further proposals. Ofcom published a further discussion document on 15 March 2007 (the ‘March discussion document’) that set out some options for making the 10 GHz available for use at the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in 2012. This statement sets out Ofcom’s conclusions on the matters raised in the June consultation and in the January and March discussion documents and in responses to the proposals made in them.