Notes for a global critical communications plan - Part 2 - Spectrum for those who need it most

Part 2 of this new blog series looks at the critical role of spectrum in the provision of all communications services and why sufficient spectrum must be made available by Governments around the world exclusively for critical communications.

We live in an information age. All the information ever sent or to be sent in the future is carried by electromagnetic waves vibrating at different frequencies across space at - or close to - the speed of light. Experiments carried out during the 19th century eventually allowed mankind to harness the power of spectrum to transmit more and more information over larger and larger distances, allowing for the evolution of new technologies that would lead to a new kind of world, a cyberspace, now regularly visited and inhabited by modern man – and woman.

Modern societies are totally dependent on spectrum to transfer data and information collected by just about everyone about just about everything to someone else, somewhere else. The financial sector uses spectrum to move money around and manage economies. Governments, defence agencies and utilities use spectrum to provide valuable basic services and keep their employees and the public safe. The transport sector uses spectrum to move people around safely. Emergency services use spectrum to save lives. Mobile operators and broadcasters spend billions of euros buying up valuable spectrum in the most convenient frequency bands to provide valuable professional, personal and entertainment services for hundreds of millions of consumers. Basic voice communications and slow-modem services have been greatly extended over the past 30 years or so to add messaging, e-mail, Internet, video and practically any form of information imaginable.

Demand for spectrum continues to increase exponentially. Spectrum is a finite resource that must be managed at a local, national and global level for a number of reasons: to prevent one user interfering with another; to prevent monopolies and cartels; to encourage economies of scale from harmonised spectrum across a wide geographic area; and to manage the current and future needs of society. National and global authorities such as the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) and national and regional telecommunications regulators all work together to make sure that there is a coherent, workable, long-term plan that allows both incumbents and new entrants fair access to radio waves for existing services and new ones. Spectrum does not respect national borders, so it clearly needs global coordination.

In a world where the transfer of bits of valuable information is just as important as the transfer of objects of value made up of atoms, the medium of transfer – spectrum – increases in value. Spectrum can be used by commercial operators to provide services for paying customers where a clear economic value can be measured; or it can be demanded by very specific users such as Governments, emergency services, utilities or transport companies as an essential input that enables the provision of basic services to the population, enhancing the well-being of society via the creation of enormous social value that can be very hard to measure directly.

There is clearly a need – some might say a basic responsibility - for our authorities to guarantee that such critical sectors always have access to adequate spectrum to carry out their important functions of protecting lives; keeping us safe and warm; keeping water flowing into and sewage flowing out of millions of homes; and keeping critical national infrastructure in full working condition so that complex modern systems can function. However, Governments are faced with a dilemma: as spectrum becomes more valuable, the pressure increases to sell it off to the highest bidder, i.e. mobile operators, broadcasters and global digital players, to generate extra revenue for the Treasury. Those users unable to pay such a price, i.e. critical communications users, are pushed out of the market for innovative new services that could enhance social value and forced to subscribe to the same mobile operators and networks for services that they – or taxpayers - can barely afford and are not necessarily adapted to their needs.

Governments must therefore take a more holistic approach to spectrum allocation and encourage new business models focusing on the maximisation of total value for society that can provide the latest technology to emergency services and other critical communications sectors. As we move further into the digital age, information and communications services become richer and richer, but spectrum also becomes scarcer and scarcer, putting even more pressure on Governments and critical users. The trend in recent years has been for Governments to auction off the most valuable spectrum to mobile operators. The time has come for an end to this lazy practice which prioritises the short-term (political cycle?) over the longer term needs of society.

ITU holds its headline World Radiocommunication Conference every 3-4 years to decide the future allocation of spectrum across the world’s 3 regions. The next conference – WRC-15 - is being held in November this year in Geneva.Every single country in the world and all the diverse industry ecosystems – mobile, broadcasting, satellite, PMR, scientific, industrial etc. - come together for three weeks to decide how much spectrum will be made available and who will be allowed to use it. The focus of discussions this time around will be the assignment of the much-prized 700 MHz band in Region 1 (EMEA) which will open up a new, lucrative global market for mobile broadband services. The discussion around eventual allocations of spectrum for future 5G services will also begin in Geneva.

Clearly, WRC-15 will also be an important event for critical communications users. There is a unique opportunity for PPDR and critical communications to be included in the release of spectrum in 700 MHz in Region 1 to bring Europe in line with other countries around the world. The ECC has published a series of reports looking closely at critical communications users’ needs. Authorities must remain strong and put the interests of society above the vested interests of a few. Public safety is perhaps the most important public utility and needs all the tools to carry out its job without police officers and fire-fighters worrying about whether or not they can pay the phone bill! If Governments are able to come up with imaginative new ways of assigning spectrum to emergency services and critical national infrastructure, enormous social value could be created and appropriated by the rest of society without damaging commercial interests.

Steady progress - albeit slower than many would like in many cases - is being made around the world:
The United States Government passed a law in early 2012 awarding 2 x 10 MHz of prime spectrum in the 700 MHz band (Band 14) to a new entity, the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) together with US$7 billion from spectrum auctions to manage the build-out of a nationwide public safety broadband network. The normal bureaucratic processes have slowed down FirstNet’s progress but the final RFP should be published by the end of 2015 or during early 2016.

Australia has also announced that it will award dedicated spectrum for emergency services.
South Korea awarded 2 x 10 MHz in 700 MHz for emergency services during 2014 following a ferry disaster, and has recently become very active within 3GPP pushing for the early standardisation of public safety LTE.

Qatar has already deployed a public safety LTE network in 800 MHz based on commercial specifications and Dubai Police are also in the process of rolling out new services, with a number of other nations in the region about to follow suit.

Mexico, Brazil and a number of Latin American countries are also looking at 700 MHz as an opportunity for the upgrade of existing, fragmented narrowband public safety solutions.

Europe still needs to decide what it is going to do to accommodate critical communications users’ requirements for advanced services. Although it looks unlikely that there will be a single common position taken by the European nations due to diverging plans - particularly by the United Kingdom -, the calls for harmonised spectrum for emergency services continue to grow as the number of terrorist attacks and internal tensions continue to grow during 2015. Pressure must continue before, during and after WRC-15 within member states to continue the search for comprehensive solutions. France appears to be leading the way with the probable award of a minimum of 2 x 8 MHz to public safety in the short to medium-term. Bands that are contiguous with commercial allocations would be ideal in order to take advantage of the economies of scale and compatibility of available handsets and solutions.

Of course, existing narrowband deployments based on mature, secure, resilient standard technologies such as TETRA and P25 must be preserved and enhanced for as long as is necessary by national administrations, until the new public safety mobile broadband standards are in place.

Spectrum is the life-blood of any economy – and society. Its value goes far beyond what users might be prepared to pay for it. For modern societies to survive and thrive, basic public safety and security must be guaranteed by all stable, caring Governments. This means that sufficient spectrum must be made available for critical users, in order to accommodate the most advanced services and applications specially designed to fit these critical users’ needs.

The provision of basic social services is very easily undermined when Governments rely blindly on market forces and the private sector to supply public goods and services which include massive, hidden social value. Governments must start to explore other methods for assigning such rights and measuring such value. If emergency services and critical national infrastructure end up depending on private enterprise for spectrum access and service provision, it will become impossible to avert future crises and disasters, leading to a heavy price being paid by society for such folly.

To be continued…

The next post will look at the need for global standards for next-generation critical communications with a special focus on the key role of 3GPP SA6 as a potential catalyst for change as the industry navigates a complex landscape full of opportunities and threats.