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.

Ofcom proposes to allow 3G and 4G on Aircraft

Ofcom, the Super regulator is proposing to allow the use of UMTS 2100 and LTE 1800 license free in aircraft. The use of 2G on the 1800MHz bands has been allowed since 2008. This is in-line with European spectrum frameworks.

This extends the harmonisation of mobile communications service on Aircraft (MCA) services to cover 3G technologies in 1920 -1980 MHz and 2110 - 2170 MHz (the "2100 MHz" frequency band) and 4G in 1710-1785 MHz and 1805 - 1880 MHz (the "1800 MHz" frequency band).

Though MCA services are not mandatory, more and more airlines are installing MCA services and they will be responsible for the installation and operation of such services and to ensure they don't interfere with ground based systems.

The consultation is available on-line and closes on 12 March 2014 and Ofcom is proposing to bring the regulations into force by May 2014.

HTC predicts the future of football

HTC the company that produces innovative mobile phones and Futurizon have produced "The Future of Football" report.

They have made some predictions (that may or not become actual reality).

Ones that are more realistic are: -

• By 2020 footballs will have impact sensors and accelerometers embedded in the ball, as well as in the kit that players wear, which will allow precise measurements on how players are playing and what the ball is doing.
• By 2014 players could have 'active skin' which could entail electronics printed on to the skin (or built into the materials of the clothing players wear) which can measure such things as blood chemistry and even link to their nervous system which will be linked to external monitoring system.

Some of the more "interesting" predictions are: -

• By 2050 fans will be able to receive full sensory information so they will 'feel' like it's like to actually be playing on the pitch.
• By 2060 Android (as in robotic humans, not the Google OS) players remotely controlled by fans.

They have also produced an infographic

about football.

By 2018 fans will be able to hold a small flexible card display displaying players and info about them as well as links to social networks etc.

Then by 2045, phones will have 3D holographic type displays which can display the action in realtime.

And (this is more realistic, though maybe not in insect form) there will be tiny drones giving access to views that aren't possible now.

Isn't the future going to be fun.

Nominet "knee jerk" reaction to Lord Macdonald QC

Nominet are the domain registry for .uk (i.e. all domains ending in the UK suffix), which is a Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) - as an aside it should really be .gb but companies such as Demon Internet broke that it in the early 90's.

Nominet have generally been very sensible in the past when it comes to domain registration policy and other matters relating to the UK domain space.

Now Lord Macdonald QC has published (PDF) a "Review of .uk Registration Policy" and made some recommendations which Nominet have now adopted.

The summary of the report is this: -

• Nominet should remain an open registry. Amongst other reasons set out in the body of this Review, this is because the market in domain names requires a speedy and efficient registration process and because the screening technology currently available is blunt and incapable of judging context. In circumstances where Nominet registers between 150,000-200,000 new domain names every month, this inevitably means that any pre-registration scrutiny of applications will throw up unmanageable numbers of false positives, slowing down registrations to no purpose and to a point that is likely to become commercially unviable.
• Nominet should consider instituting a system of post-registration screening, to be conducted within 48 hours of registration, for domain names that appear to signal sex crime content, or to amount in themselves to sex crimes. Where examples in this category are discovered, they should be reported to the police and suspended or de-registered. This process, in so far as it is designed to detect grave criminality, is plainly consistent with an open registration policy.
• Nominet should restrict post registration scrutiny to domain names in the serious sex crime category. This is because the relevant screening terms for sex crime are highly specific and have a stronger chance of identifying true positives. Post-registration screening for other forms of criminality will inevitably rely on very general terms that are bound to throw up unmanageable numbers of false positives.
• Nominet, which is a private company, should have no role in policing questions of taste or offensiveness on the Internet. It is not set up, trained or by culture competent to act as Internet censor, in contrast to identifying possible examples of criminality for onward reporting to the police. Furthermore, there are no objective, generally accepted standards of taste that could guide Nominet in undertaking such a role. This means that any decision- making on its part would risk uncertainty and inconsistency, which are highly undesirable ingredients where the restriction of free expression rights is concerned. Nominet would not have public confidence as censor, and it should not be expected to assume such a role in circumstances where government and police are content not to act.
• Where domain names that are alleged to signal criminal content, or to amount to crimes in themselves, or to be attached to criminal content, are brought to Nominet’s attention, Nominet should, if it agrees that they might fall into any of those categories, refer these cases to the police for further action. In consultation with the police, this could include suspension or de-registration. It is only in these circumstances that Nominet, which is not a content provider, should involve itself in the examination of website content for any regulatory purpose.
• Nominet should amend its terms and conditions to make it clear that any registration of a domain name that signals criminal content, or amounts in itself to a crime, will constitute a breach of Nominet’s terms of business, and is liable to be reported to the police and suspended or de-registered.

This all sounds very reasonable at face value, however this can lead to lots of ambiguities ... as Adrian Kennard points out in his well written blog piece ... so someone registering therapist.co.uk can fall foul of these recommendations as it may be interpreted as TheRapist.co.uk which is a sex crime.

A registrant could quite happily register murderwhoever.co.uk as this is NOT a sex crime.

It's also quite easy to circumvent as Nominet will only check the top level domain, so (again thanks to Mr Kennard) children.co.uk can be registered with no problem, and then the registrant can just use a sub-domain like f*ck.children.co.uk which Nominet have NO control over.

The law is an ass and this is a good example where it can rapidly lead to a horrible mess.

USC develops restoration software

The University of Southern California (USC) hosts the Shoah Foundation and it's video testimonial archive (set-up by Steven Spielberg).

The archive has video testimonials of 52,000 survivors (including my father's testimonial which was so long it was in two parts which can be seen here and here), unfortunately around 5% of these had degraded audio and/or video due to errors in the recording equipment in use at the time (Betamax SP video cameras which is 20 year old technology).

Ryan Fenton-Strauss, video archive and post-production manager at ITS was takes with the restoration project. He worked out that the videos could be broken down into sequences of individual frames and used Google's Picasso which could do facial recognition and then duplicate previous good frames into where a frame was corrupt.

The system now uses Nation Instruments Vision Builder to automate the process which now requires almost no manual intervention and Ryan hopes to go into production with this system early next year.

Ofcom produces "Easy Read" guide to mobile phones

Ofcom, the Super regulator, has produced and Easy Reading guide to mobile phones for people with learning difficulties. The guide uses the Easy Read system which uses pictures as well as text to explain things. The guide can also be used by people with limited English skills.

The guide offers advice on mobile phone use and costs as well as information: -

• the different types of mobile phone handsets available
• the costs of mobile phone calls and ways to pay
• free services available for disabled customers
• how to complain when things go wrong.

Ofcom has printed 5,000 copies of the guide which is being made available to every social services Director in the UK. It can also be made available in braille and ordered in large quantities on request.

The guide is also available on-line.

Maybe Blackberry will get a reprive

Blackberry moving into the consumer space was a bad idea on many accounts and rushing out BB10 with many features that were standard with BBOS while adding bells and whistles was also maybe not so clever.

However, now with all the fuss about the US's NSA and UK's GCHQ snooping everybody, businesses and Governments may now seriously be thinking about returning to the venerable Blackberry platform as it's the only phone with an encrypted end-to-end email service.

The German Government has already ordered 40,000 secure Blackberry Z10 phones (who knows why they didn't go for Q10's - maybe a bargain basement sale?). This trend could continue as other governments must also be worried about email snooping.

Blackberry seem to be moving back away from the consumer market and concentrating on what they're good at, encrypted secure communication devices which can meet regulatory approval for organisations such as banks and governments, maybe they'll survive after all, but in smaller markets where people are prepared to pay for the secure services they need.

Ofcom consults on mobile data strategy

Ofcom, the Super regulator, is holding a consultation on its mobile data strategy, potentially looking as far forward as 2030.

Ofcom has recently sold off spectrum in the 800MHz and 2.6GHz bands and is looking to award spectrum in the 2.3GHz and 3.4GHz in the near future as well as opening up the use of TV whitespace and even the 700MHz band (which is currently used for DTT) which would mean moving the DTT band to 600MHz (and using MPEG-4 and DVB-T2 technologies).

This can be summarised in a table: -

  

Relative priority for potential release	Bands for consideration
Current priorities	700 MHz, 2.3, 3.4 GHz, UHF white space
High	1452-1492 MHz, 1980-2010 / 2170-2200 MHz (2 GHz MSS), 3.6-3.8 GHz, 5350-5470 MHz, 5725-5925 MHz
Medium-High	2.7-2.9 GHz, 3.8-4.2 GHz
Medium	450-470 MHz4, 470-694 MHz, 1350-1518 MHz

Some of these bands are in use and therefore current users will have to migrate off them or shared use is being considered.

Newer WiFi technologies make more use of the 5GHz band (Ofcom have noted the 2.4GHz band is already congested in many areas), however the 5GHz band would have to be extended (currently the bands are either licensed or lightly licensed as some of it is used for things like military radar).

Other parts of the spectrum would be expected to be used to extend mobile usages for 4G and 5G services.

The full statement (PDF) can be found here (it's 113 pages long).

Stakeholders can respond on-line.

Thinfilm develops smart sensor label

Thinfilm based out of Oslo, Norway, has developed a method of using specialised inks to print smart electronics onto labels, the first of which is a temperature sensing label for monitoring the temperature of perishable goods.

The labels are thin and flexible, contain the sensors, batteries, display and memory, connected by printable ink. This also means they can be both manufactured on continuous roller production lines and then placed on goods using roller systems to remove the labels and place them.

It is expected that the market for thermo sensor labels will be over $3.2 billion USD by 2020.

The technology uses full addressing logic for multi-bit read-write of printed memory, memory write based on detection of temperature thresholds and low-voltage display driver based on complementary organic logic. The memory should remain readable for at least 10 years.

Products based on the combination of these technologies is expected to be market ready by the end of 2014.

Printable electronics can significantly reduce costs and will permeate many areas that currently use discrete electronic systems that are more expensive and not suitable for rolling production.

There are also many other uses that can be used for the Internet of Things.

LinkedIn Intro, one mailbox to rule them all

Last week LinkedIn introduced a new iOS app called Intro. It seems a really good idea by scanning your email and showing how the person sending the email is connected to you, their LinkedIn details etc.

Unfortunately it does this by modifying the iOS mail connection profiles and pointing them all at a LinkedIn's IMAP proxy, thus intercepting ALL your email. This means that LinkedIn suddenly have access to all your email accounts and also every email that your iOS device has access too and of course they'd never do anything sinister with all this data (forget the NSA and GCHQ tapping emails, this is LinkedIn doing it with your permission).

Of course LinkedIn strenuously deny that they're doing anything dubious and their IMAP proxy is heavily secured (including connections to and from it using SSL/TLS), however it must suddenly be a great target for hackers as within the proxy itself all emails will be at some point held in clear-text.

Various mail providers are already looking at blocking LinkedIn's IP blocks to their mail services (listed below).

199.101.161.0/24

199.101.162.0/24

199.101.163.0/24

216.52.242.0/24

69.28.147.0/24

8.22.120.0/24

2620:0109:C00D::/48

2620:109:C00D::/48

And for the geeks, their AS number is AS20049.

Nice try, just be scared.

Get on your SMART e-bike

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky to invited to test ride a SMART e-bike. There are some things I should point out: -

• I'm not really a bike rider
• I haven't properly ridden a bike for many years
• Riding through London terrifies me

However saying that, the e-bike is pretty, we used the white and green version (it also comes in grey with orange trim - which I thought looked prettier).

The bike is quite heavy (though having an aluminium frame, and the metal drive chain replaced by a carbon-fibre drive pulley), it weighs 26.1Kg. It comes with hydraulic disc brakes front and rear (and mud flaps). The seat is quite comfortable as it contains a gel liner to pad your sensitive bits. There's also an air shock absorber on the front section (which is adjustable) to smooth out those bumps.

In the rear wheel there's a 250W brushless DC motor that can move the bicycle up to 15Mph.There's also an 'automatic' gear system (from 1 to 3 where 1 is the easiest and 3 is the least gearing).

The rechargeable battery (mounted in bit that the seat fits on to) is lithium-ion 48V with a capacity of 423Wh which can be removed. It comes with a normal mains charger (that can charge the battery in situ) and a full charge takes around 5 hours. The battery is guaranteed for 500 charging cycles and will retain 80% residual charge for 2 years. The management unit also has a USB port (for diagnostics/software upgrades/etc) and can also change a device like a smartphone, useful with the optional smartphone holder that mounts in-front of the unit allowing a user to use GPS/maps/etc.

There's also a display mounted between the handle bars that is the 'brains' of the e-bike. It has a trip counter, shows the battery charge remaining, speed and also the amount of power applied to the motor (from zero to 4 units at max power). The unit can also put the motor into charge mode (from -1 to -4) where the the motor will then act as a brake.

When riding from stationary, the motor won't actually kick in until the pedals have completed around 2 revolutions, this is to stop the bike say lurching forward when traffic lights go green, straight in to the back of a vehicle in front.

Riding isn't effortless - a rider still has to pedal, though when the motor kicks in it;s certainly easier riding. Also when climbing a steep hill, putting the e-bike into low gear and turning on full motor assist does make a life a lot easier.

If then going down a hill, put the motor into charge mode and as well as the motor acting as a smooth brake, it also charges the battery. The battery is also charged when the front-brakes are applied (i.e. the motor assists with breaking).

I managed a ride of 13.9 miles in about 4 hours (with a break) and wasn't particularly sore afterwards (apart form soft fleshy bits, but that's just not being used to bike parts rubbing me). It really did make riding easier. The bike has a range of 60 miles (I'd assume normal road riding conditions), though this will vary depending on how much the motor is used and how much the motor is used as a brake (which will charge the battery).

There was one major flaw with the bike, the controls for the management unit are on the unit itself, when they should have put them near the handles of the bike (maybe an extension system). Changing the controls meant taking your hand off the grip and fiddling with the control unit, which isn't the safest thing in the world.

The bike is also heavy, so manoeuvring at slow speed (like going through cycle gates) was hard as it meant moving a heavy bike and trying to navigate odd turns etc. and at low speeds 9without pedalling) you're on your own.

The e-bike isn't cheap, it costs £2,600 without any of the accessories - coming from Mercedes, they're not cheap either.

NOTE since writing this SMART have updated the e-bike and put the controls for the management unit into the handlebars, they've obviously listened to feedback fro early users. Maybe the next version will be made out of carbon-fibre and thus reduce the weight too.

TomTom devices gives access to engine info for smartphone use

TomTom Business Solutions is launching a new device the TomTom Link 100. This connects to the engine management unit (EMU) via the standard CAN-bus and has a built in 3D accelerometer. This then can connect to a smartphone device via Bluetooth allowing easy diagnostics in the event of a crash or even the vehicle breaking down.

All modern cars use the standard bus interface so it should work will most cars on the road.

The device can also be used by insurance companies to track driving habits etc (though no GPS information is available), drivers could also use the device to improve their driving.

TomTom have not said what data is exposed (apart from RPM, load and temperature), though the EMU provide a lot more information and with the right application many minor faults can be reset by such a device making trips to the garage less frequent (and also allowing drivers to check what faults garages etc are charging them for and whether it is a major or minor fault).

If the all the data is exposed and TomTom allow read and write information it could allow app vendors to make interesting solutions to make the driving experience better, though of course insurance companies will want these devices to ensure drivers drive better.

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.

Ofcom consults on whitespace co-existance

Ofcom, the Super regulator that handles radio spectrum as part of its remit, is holding a consultation on the coexistence of whitespace devices.

Whitespace is the spectrum that is unused in certain areas due to geographic transmission systems that can not overlap and in this case relates to the UHF TV channels (470 MHz to 790 MHz). As there are multiple transmitters across the UK, adjacent transmitters can not operate in the same frequency bands (especially for digital TV) or the transmitters would interfere with each other.

This leads to large chunks of the UHF spectrum not being used in a particular geographic zone, which could be used for other purposes (as long as it was low power and didn't reach neighbouring areas).

Current plans are that whitespace devices will monitor what bands are in use (by listening to those frequencies) and thus not use them, in the UK they must also contact a central database, report their location and the database will specify what frequencies are available and what power they can transmit at.

There are other services that can also be interfered with such as program making and special events (PMSE) - things like outside broadcast units which can use some of the spectrum for remote TV cameras and such like, which also have to be catered for.

Ofcom have already said they will allow whitespace use on a license exempt basis, but they also must ensure that there will be no harmful interference to digital terrestrial television (DTT) and PMSE.

Whitespace technology is new and thus there is some uncertainty on how whitespace devices may interfere with DTT or PMSE services. However Ofcom doesn't want to overly constrain whitespace use such that large amounts of spectrum go unused, or that power levels/etc are so restrictive that reaching any sizeable population is unrealistic.

Ofcom will currently err on the side of caution and setting parameters that can be relaxed in future. Later this year there will be a set of pilot trials across the UK with a number of service providers where the increased power levels can be used for limited periods of time to ensure interference doesn't occur. The trials (and stakeholder consultations) will continue until Summer 2014 and will help Ofcom set the parameters for future national whitespace roll-outs starting in Q3 2014.

Ofcom has set the parameters and algorithms for use in trials to minimise the effects on

• Digital Terrestrial Television services
• licensed users of equipment for Programme Making and Special Events
• services above and below the UHF TV band.

Ofcom have also noted that whitespace availability will vary in areas across the UK i.e. London has relatively low DTT issues with whitespace use while Glasgow has much less spectrum available, however Glasgow has very little PMSE use while in central London (and areas like Wembley Stadium) there is a large amount of use.

Though it is yet early days, whitespace spectrum should allow high bandwidth services with good propagation characteristics (coverage) which could be used to provide mobile network operator capacity off-loading, broadband and machine-to-machine (M2M) services.

Companies such as Neul (a CSR - now Samsung spin-off) are betting their futures on whitespace.

The consultation closes on 15 November 2013 and stakeholders can respond on-line.

Ofcom consults on Spectrum Management Approach in the 70/80GHz bands

Ofcom, the Super regulator that looks after spectrum management is holding a consultation on proposals to change the management and authorisation approach used to manage the bands 71 - 76 GHz and 81 - 86 GHz (70 / 80GHz). These offer 2 x 4.75 GHz of bandwidth allowing very high capacity links (over 1Gb/s) which are not supported in lower frequency bands. These bands have been available for use since 2007.

Currently the spectrum is not managed at is up to the users of these bands to co-ordinate amongst themselves on use (self coordinated spectrum), though currently use of the spectrum is minimal compared to lower frequency bands. However with the rapid adoption of 4G services and the bandwidth that will be required to remote cell-sites, usage can be expected to rapidly increase and operators are now worried that self-coordinated management will not suffice as links in these bands will have to provide 99.99% to 99.999% availability, so any interference could be disastrous for mobile networks.

Ofcom is proposing to manage the spectrum in a mixed manner offering partial self-coordinated use and partial managed use.

Ofcom coordinated approach: 2 x 2 GHz

Guard band: 2 x 250 MHz

Self coordinated approach: 2 x 2.5 GHz

NOTE Image (C) Ofcom.

This will allow non-critical links to be operated as now in the higher part of the bands while more critical services will be in the lower part of the bands managed by Ofcom (using the same regulatory environment as for fixed links in lower bands).

This should be good news for users and backhaul links get very expensive very quickly and can limit the growth of a mobile network (in terms of coverage), so being able to use protected spectrum to maintain high bandwidth links to cell-sites and allowing the networks to provision more 4G cells.

The full consultation is available on-line and stakeholders may respond here, the by 5th October 2013.

Qualcomm sells Omnitracs but buys Orb

Qualcomm the company that makes chips such the Snapdragon and Powerline electronics (after acquiring Atheros) has sold it's mobile tracking unit Omnitracs to Vista Equity Partners for $800m. Omnitracs makes vehicle tracking systems that are used for fleet tracking and other automotive solutions like for consumer insurance systems (i.e. the insurance company can track the user's driving behaviour).

Orb Networks offered the free media streaming service MyCast as well as Orb Live along with the Orb TV and Music MP-1 devices. These will all be discontinued. It's assumed Orb services will be integrated into the Atheros media and home automations lines (such as Powerline and other devices).

Ofcom consults on changing local number dialling in 5 areas

Ofcom, the Super regulator, is holding a consultation on how local numbers must be dialled in 5 areas which are running out of local numbers.

The areas affected are Aberdeen (01224), Bradford (01274), Brighton (01273), Middlesbrough (01642) and Milton Keynes (01908). In these areas, the full number (including the area code) will have to be dialled - which will allow around 200,000 new numbers to be made available in these areas, which should satisfy demand for at least 10 years.

The change means the affected areas will use closing local dialling and will allow numbers starting with 0 to be issued i.e. for Aberdeen numbers will be able to be allocated like 01224 0XXXXX and 01224 1XXXXX. If the area code 01224 was not included there could be clashes with numbers starting with 0 or 1 such as 100 for operator assistance or 118xxx directory enquiry services.

The consultation closes on September 13th 2013 and the change is expected to come into force in October 2014.

Ofcom's statement is available here and stakeholders may respond on-line.

Ofcom trials DAB based on open source software

Ofcom, the Super regulator that looks after radio spectrum management and broadcasting amongst other things has reported on a trial that used open source software to run a digital audio broadcast (DAB) transmission.

The trial was based in Brighton and used Linux software and an software defined radio (SDR) to broadcast DAB signals in the Brighton area, though the trial was only low power (the output of the SDR was set to 5mW) a signal could be received over 7Km away. There was also no detectable interference to the BBC local DAB multiplex which was around 3Km away from the trial transmitter.

The trial was carried out privately under Non-Operational Test and Development licence issued by Ofcom.

The full report is here, Ofcom doesn't endorse any software or hardware used, but the report contains references to all the hardware and software used.

Initially the trial was conducted using 2 laptops, but the software was integrated on to a single (rack mount) PC running xubuntu. It would also be possible to run at least some of the software (multiplexor etc) on a RaspberryPi.

Maybe this will lead the way for other Ofcom 'approved' trials such as running lower power GSM networks also using open source software.

C&W (Vodafone) and Urban WiMAX get 28GHz license variations

Ofcom has issued a statement with respect to the 28GHz Broadband Fixed Wireless Access (BFWA) licences of Cable and Wireless (now Vodafone) and Urban Wimax.

The licenses were due to expire on 31st December 2015 and now they will be made indefinite.

The licensees can use the bands for equipment that complies with Interface Requirement 2048 (IR 2048) in-line with other licensees.

From January 2016, there will be new pricing set which incentivises the licenses to utilise the spectrum. Pricing has not be set yet.

28GHz allows high bandwidth point-to-point links which can be used for backhaul and with Vodafone's purchase of C&W it makes sense to use their own spectrum for mobile backhaul.

Ofcom awards new TV spectrum

Ofcom, the super regulator has issued a statement on the award of the 600MHz band (550 to 606 MHz). This has been awarded to Arqiva for the provision of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) multiplexes. Arqiva will utilise MPEG4 video encoding and DVB-T2 transmission services (as used by Freeview HD).

This is a temporary license, though it will run through until 2026, unless Ofcom give Arqiva 24 months notices in which case it can be revoked in 2018.

The ability to terminate the license is to allow migration of DTT services from the 700MHz band to the 600MHz band in line with EU harmonised spectrum regulation and will allow the 700MHz band to be used for wireless broadband services.