Lichtenau, Germany – LS telcom today announces the publication of its study about worldwide licensing and usage of IMT (international mobile telecommunications) spectrum. LS telcom found that in most regions of the world at least 30% of harmonised spectrum for IMT services is not yet licensed. From within that which is licensed almost a quarter is not yet in service, the situation being worse for TDD spectrum than FDD spectrum.
Amongst other figures, the study finds that most countries should be able to find at least another 150 MHz of additional IMT spectrum from within that which is regionally harmonised. In addition, almost every country should be able to find a further 200 MHz of spectrum that is identified by the ITU for IMT but which may require effort to make it available (e.g. through re-farming). The analysis also shows that the 700 MHz band still remains to be licensed in most parts of the world and that the 2600 MHz bands, which represent nearly 200 MHz of IMT spectrum, remain to be licensed virtually everywhere with the exception of Europe.
Richard Womersley, Director of Spectrum Consulting at LS telcom and author of the study concludes that “before further spectrum is identified for IMT services at WRC-15, there is clearly a need for operators to work with regulators to push forward with the licensing of already identified IMT spectrum, and for operators to put their entire licensed spectrum into use.”
LS telcom analysed the licensing data of over 90 countries and the responses by 20 regulators to a survey on the use of licensed IMT spectrum. This data has been compared to the amount of spectrum, which should be easily licensed as it is fully harmonised, and to the amount of spectrum identified by the ITU for IMT, which therefore could be licensed and put to use.