5G national developments and spectrum update

Cristian Gomez
Director, Spectrum Policy and Regulatory Affairs
Hanoi, March 2019
 Spectrum Availability and Harmonisation Are Fundamental to
the Success of 5G Deployment…
5G needs spectrum across three ranges Spectrum bands used for global 5G trials

Sub-1 GHz
• Widespread coverage
• IoT services

1-6 GHz
• Good balance of coverage
and capacity benefits

>6 GHz
• Capacity (ultra-high speeds)
• mmWave

2 Source: “The 5G Era in the US” (Mar 2018), GSMA; “”5G Spectrum Public Policy Position” (Nov 2016), GSMA
 5G spectrum – an international summary
It is vital that 5G spectrum bands are widely harmonized

600 MHz Enables the greater economies of scale needed for a good choice of low cost devices
Enables roaming and facilitates cross border coordination
Avoid spectrum fragmentation and incompatibilities between markets

700 MHz

C-Band

26 GHz

28 GHz

www.gsma.com/spectrum
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Projected Impact of mmW on GDP by Industry Vertical (Global)

Additional benefits of mmWave 5G

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 5G progress and policies in the US
 4G and 5G networks will likely co-exist and remain complementary for
many years. The US mobile operators are targeting a phased approach to
5G network deployments
 The provision of enhanced mobile broadband will be the core proposition
in early 5G deployments
 Massive IoT and ultra-reliable, low-latency communications gaining scale
at a later stage
 As the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) are moving
towards mainstream adoption, 5G is expected to have a major role in their
development

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 5G progress and policies in the US: use cases
 Main mobile technology by 2025
 Innovative and segmented consumer propositions targeting an enhanced
mobile/video customer experience could play a key role in driving 5G
consumer adoption
 Entertainment content delivered through advanced video capabilities,
AR/VR devices and applications for gaming and immersive TV, and multi-
device subscriptions that include IoT services (e.g.connected cars)
 5G-based fixed wireless as well as 5G-based services targeted at the
enterprise sector (verticals) represent major opportunities for incremental
operator revenue in the US

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 5G progress and policies in the US: regulation and
policy
 Spectrum – need for a regulatory framework that prioritises and
supports the timely and sufficient availability of spectrum for 5G
 Infrastructure – US operators believe regulators must aim to
reduce existing barriers to deploying infrastructure, particularly
small cells which are expected to be widely utilised in 5G
networks
 Economics – the investment needed to deploy 5G networks
should be supported by a long-term policy environment that
provides greater predictability, effective competition among
companies in the ecosystem, and encourages innovation.

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 Roadmap example: UK plans for 4G and 5G spectrum
 Ofcom regularly releases information on its website and runs consultations concerning the release of new spectrum
 For example:
 as part of the consultation process for the upcoming 2.3 & 3.4 GHZ Award, Ofcom released a timeline for
availability of mobile spectrum in the 700 MHz and 3.6-3.8 GHz bands
 in 2017, it consulted on clearing the 3.6 GHz band and has issued notices to fixed link operators to clear the
band within 5 years

UK Mobile Spectrum Roadmap

Already allocated
Auction scheduled for late 2017 / early 2018
Auction scheduled for late 2018 / 2019

Spectrum bands are shaded

grey when they are allocated
and useable

Source: Ofcom, Statement: Award of 2.3 and 3.4 GHz spectrum bands: Competition issues and auction regulations, 11 July 2017.
 Mobile industry journey to 5G: what next?

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 Assigning 5G spectrum: key considerations
 Smaller coverage footprint, large bandwidths: heavy investment in
network densification
 High spectrum pricing across hundreds of MHz of bandwidth will
distort investment
 Predictability of spectrum release: a clear and collaborative spectrum
roadmap benefits both government and mobile investments
 Timely spectrum release and reasonable prices will benefit 5G rollouts
in APAC

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 GSMA Supporting Materials for WRC-19

https://www.gsma.com/spectrum/wrc-series
https://www.gsma.com/spectrum/5g-spectrum-guide/

12 www.gsma.com/spectrum