How to approach 5G policies
According to a recent report from BearingPoint//Beyond only 21% of early enterprise 5G related contracts have been
awarded to telecom carrier service providers. In additional 40% of early 5G enterprise contracts, telecom carrier service
providers were secondary vendors. This shows a desire of material parts of the business community to buy such private
networks solutions from vendors outside the telecom industry. It also means an opportunity for telecoms to improve
their standing with enterprise customers. The creation of some disruptive tension via regional allocation of spectrum may
encourage telecoms to focus harder on the customer and competitiveness of their own service, and hence fundamentally
strengthen their business.
“ The creation of some disruptive tension via regional allocation
of some spectrum may encourage telecoms to focus harder
on the customer and competitiveness of their own service,
and hence fundamentally strengthen their own business”
A number of countries have already allocated, or they are contemplating a model of allocating 5G spectrum in the
valuable band around 3.5GHz, but also in other 5G-suitable spectrum bands, for local private networks. This method
follows ideas sometimes also called Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA), promoted by the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance.
Examples of localized spectrum allocation initiatives for private 5G networks include:
The Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) project in the US. This is so far the most sophisticated DSA spectrum
allocation scheme for 150MHz in the band between 3,550-3,700MHz. It is a three-tier system when incumbent
users such as the US navy get absolute priority for using this spectrum in local areas where they need it (this can
change over time, as the navy ships move, for example, but generally the territory where such spectrum is required
is limited). Other users can choose to be either tier two, Priority Access License (PAL) holders, or tier three, also
called General Authorized Access (GAA). The system uses technologies to manage spectrum interference based
on the above-mentioned tiered system and the location of users, which may change in time. In practice, it can give
direct access to the same spectrum band to government institutions, telecom operators, tech companies, industrial
companies as well as other users, including small and medium sized business. It aims at tech-driven higher and
more versatile utilization of the spectrum than under the legacy telecom model.
Spectrum for Industry 4.0 in Germany. The country has designated a 100MHz block between 3,700-3,800MHz
specifically for industrial users on a local basis. This spectrum is currently used by over 30 industrial companies,
including Bosch, BMW, BASF, Lufthansa, Siemens and Volkswagen. We have already seen a telecom operator
offering its service to an enterprise customer, which chose to build its own network, using its own locally allocated
spectrum. Critics of the scheme however point out that spectrum allocated this way is only used on a small part of
the national territory, and it is practically wasted outside the industrial complexes.
In addition the Netherlands, Sweden and the Czech Republic are planning to allocate some spectrum around the
3.5GHz band for local private networks. Other countries such as the UK, France, Japan, Australia and Hong Kong are also
contemplating the concept of regional spectrum allocation for private 5G networks, although potentially in different
frequency bands.
For more information:
https://5gobservatory.eu/5g-private-licences-spectrum-in-europe/
The Czech Republic is one of Europe’s most industrialized countries. Therefore, industry use of 5G is the country’s top
priority, as outlined in its new 5G Strategy approved in January 2020. This strategy among others proposes support for
industrial 5G research and Smart Industrial Zones (also see chapter 5.2.).
5G as an opportunity to reform
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