ISED consulting on spectrum strategy for next five years

Innovation Canada is initiating a consultation on its approach to spectrum over the next five years, looking at future technological developments, the kind of spectrum demand they could generate, and how spectrum bands should be released to meet that demand. In a press release Friday afternoon, ISED said the consultation will focus on “creating better cell phone service and value for the middle class,” and pointed to concerns among Canadians about high prices. “Canadians said that they find the cost of cell phone services too high, and our government is listening. We've launched a public consultation that will help us come up with a plan that puts Canadians first while also supporting competition, investment and innovation in Canada's telecommunications sector so that Canadians continue to benefit from next-generation technologies and that Canada remains at the forefront of innovation," Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains said in the release. The consultation follows a previous five-year outlook released in 2013. The department also posted a consultation document to its website that states the consultation will look at “the overall approach and planning activities related to the release of spectrum for commercial mobile services, licence-exempt applications, satellite services and wireless backhaul services over the years 2018 to 2022.” The document discussed the increasing demand for spectrum, adding that over the next five to 10 years, “ISED expects that new technologies, techniques and uses will have a significant impact on spectrum requirements for these services and applications, and will also provide opportunities for new approaches to managing the spectrum.” The document said ISED would focus on three pillars during the consultation: quality networks that support new technologies, service coverage, and affordable pricing. In addition to the ongoing consultation on the 600 MHz band, ISED said it intends to consult on the AWS-2 band, “specifically the frequency range 1915-1920 MHz /1995-2000 MHz (H Block),” as well as the 3500 MHz band. It noted it will expand its 3500 MHz consultation to include a review of 3400-4200 MHz. It also identified bands that could potentially be made available in the next five years, including the 800 MHz, 900 MHz, the L-band (1427-1518 MHz), the AWS-3 unpaired band (1695-1710 MHz) and bands in the 5GHz, 7GHz and 9GHz range as well as bands above 24GHz. ISED said that it recognizes that some of those bands are already in use, and added that “changes to the utilization of these bands would be subject to future consultations.” It asked for comment on how it can better plan for new technology, and the associated demand commercial mobile services will see over the coming years due to projections that show increases in traffic and data usage. ISED said that it looked at a variety of studies that “show that the volume of data to be carried over various networks is expected to increase between three- and six-fold by 2020 and that the most significant growth in demand for data will be for commercial mobile services, licence-exempt applications (largely Wi-Fi), satellite services and backhaul.” That’s why it has decided to focus on those four application in considering releases of new spectrum, it said. Regarding licence-exempt spectrum, it noted the increasing demand for spectrum used for WiFi, including by carriers who use WiFi hotspots to offload traffic, and the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), which will “be a major driver of data traffic increase in spectrum used for licence-exempt applications for years to come.” Given all of that increased demand, the document said ISED believes “there is a need to consider additional spectrum releases in order to respond to the expected future data and capacity demands of the evolving Canadian telecommunication infrastructure.” The deadline for comments is January 9, 2018. — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca

ISED consulting on spectrum strategy for next five years

News | October 6, 2017

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ISED consulting on spectrum strategy for next five years

News | October 6, 2017

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