Ofcom makes Earth Stations on mobile platforms license exempt'ish

Ofcom, the Super regulator has decided to make the use of Earth Stations on Mobile Platforms (ESOMP) license except, but in conjunction with existing mobile licenses such as ship or aircraft radio licenses.

This should allow ships and aircraft to offer mobile broadband services with downlink speeds of around 50Mb/s from a single satellite, which would equate to about 10Mb/s to each passenger (multiple satellites can be used).

Ofcom is making available 4,128 MHz worth of spectrum in the following bands: 27.5 – 27.8185 GHz (transmit); 28.4545 – 28.8265 GHz (transmit); 29.4625 – 30 GHz (transmit); and 17.3 – 20.2 GHz (receive) which is a fair chunk of spectrum.

Ship's use should come into force this month and aviation, in collaboration with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), by summer 2014.

The full statement is here.