5G

(asked on 11th February 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with Ofcom on opening up access to undeployed 5G 3.6GHz radio spectrum for use by independent and community networks.


Answered by
Margot James Portrait
Margot James
This question was answered on 19th February 2019

The Government’s key objectives in relation to spectrum are ensuring the efficient and effective use, improving mobile coverage and encouraging innovation and investment in new 5G services to meet future demand. In the Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review, the Government set out how the 3.6 GHz band could facilitate access to spectrum to support 5G services, thus promoting dynamic efficiency and innovation through more flexible approaches to spectrum licensing.

We welcome Ofcom’s consultation document on the 700 MHz and 3.6-3.8 GHz release for 5G services. Whilst Ofcom have provisionally stated that these bands will be auctioned on a national basis, the Government continues to explore spectrum sharing models which would allow community or small provider solutions to meet the needs of local areas.

DCMS meets regularly with Ofcom to discuss these issues and consider future use cases for 5G technologies. However as Ofcom is the national regulatory authority, they are responsible for managing spectrum and ensuring that spectrum is used in the most effective way to facilitate such growth.

More broadly, the Government believes that there should be greater liquidity in the spectrum market and barriers to spectrum trading should be removed. The Government would like Ofcom to clarify, through amendments to its Spectrum Trading Guidance Notes, that leasing or pooling of spectrum is not prohibited under the Wireless Telegraphy (Mobile Spectrum Trading) Regulations 2011 (as amended).

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