Qualcomm flogs off its L-Band spectrum

As reported in this blog in 2008, Qualcomm UK Spectrum Ltd won all the lots of the UK L-Band spectrum (lots LA to LQ) which it paid the gainly sum of £8,334,000.

Qualcomm was pushing its MediaFlo wireless broadcast technology at the time and was going to use this spectrum to deliver MediaFlo services to the UK. Unfortunately that required handset vendors to license the tech and install it in their handsets, which didn't happen. It did get some traction in the US, but people rapidly lost interest. Soon after Qualcomm closed it's Media FLO division and Europe had gone the way of DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast - Handset) anyway.

Qualcomm looked to be sitting on a bit of a spectrum white-elefant and probably wished they hadn't bothered and the who Media FLO thing and their spectrum would just go away.

Move to the present and it seems Qualcomm have just sold their 1452-1492 MHz (40MHz) spectrum to Vodafone and Three for a rumoured £100m. Nice little profit of £92m (maybe enough to cover all the Media FLO tech they gave up on).

The L-Band spectrum can be used for both supplemental download links and supplemental upload links (SDL and SUL respectively) which are part of 4G and allow operators to add extra capacity to mobile terminals (i.e. phones). Unfortunately very few if any current phones support SDL services let alone the L-Band frequencies. As phones use more and more bandwidth maybe this will change in the future.

Where the operators can use this, is for more bandwidth to basestations and it may be an easy way to boost network capacity.

As this spectrum was offered many years ago, though it was technology neutral, it wasn't covered by spectrum trading agreements and officially the spectrum trade has to be agreed by Ofcom., which may bring a slight spanner into the works. There should be no reason why Ofcom won't allow the transfer, however the annual license fees on this spectrum were calculated on the sell price (i.e. £8m). The mobile networks are charged rather more on their aggregate spectrum, so there's likely to be a hike on the spectrum fees.

Time will tell if it was a sensible purchase or not (though Qualcomm are probably now laughing while they head to the bank).

Ofcom consulting on releasing public sector spectrum

Ofcom, the Super regulator that has responsibility for spectrum allocation, is consulting on the planned release of MoD spectrum in the 2.3GHz and 3.4GHz bands.

The bands being made available are 2350 to 2390 MHz (40MHz) and 3410 to 3600 MHz (150MHz). It is expected that these bands will be licensed for use by mobile network operators for 4G/LTE services, though other broadband services could also be offered.

Unfortunately these bands are also used by amateur radio and it is likely that severe interference can be expected. Therefore Ofcom has proposed three recommendations to minimise interference.

• i) Remove access to the adjacent bands
• ii) Retain access to the adjacent bands on the current terms but with clarification of the notice period required for future amateur use to cease if amateurs cause interference to other users in the release band or the adjacent band
• iii) Restrict amateur access to a smaller part of one or more adjacent bands.

Of these 3 Ofcom's preferred option is ii) whereby Ofcom will require amateurs to stop using these bands if there is interference to licensed users (with a notification period).

Ofcom wants to make changes to amateur licenses such that if the proposals are accepted would

• i) remove the frequencies of the release bands from the licence.
We have set out three options for the adjacent bands and are recommending option two which if implemented would:
• ii) introduce a procedure to enable removal of additional frequencies (i.e. the adjacent bands) to quickly if harmful interference arises in the future.

Though this will adversely potentially affect amateur radio users, the benefit to the overall population will be increased with access to more spectrum for LTE or other services.

The consultation has now closed.