The spectrum bands under consideration in this consultation are 700 MHz, 11GHz, 12GHz and 40GHz. According to the consultation document, these frequencies are currently unassigned. URCA will not mandate the use of any specific technology in these bands, provided that the technology to be used conforms to recognized standards, the National Spectrum Plan and any specific frequency band plan. It also proposes general procedural guidelines to be followed by URCA when determining to open new spectrum bands and for the issuance of frequencies in such bands
It remains to be seen whether URCA will receive any concrete proposal for the use of 700 MHz band. ECTEL conducted similar a consultation on the 700 MHz bands in 2008 and the Cayman Islands' Information and Communications Technology Authority did the same in 2009. In these consultations, Digicel and LIME expressed interest in utilizing this spectrum at some point in the future. However, they were reluctant to provide specific proposals with short or medium-term deployment timeframes. This reluctance was likely due to the embryonic nature (at the time) of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) network being deployed by Verizon in the 700 MHz band, and perhaps also Qualcomm's MediaFLO service. Telecom vendors including Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei, had yet to roll out 700 MHz LTE gears in real-world environments. Hence, it appears that Digicel and LIME may have decided to wait for these real-world 700 MHz deployments before making firm commitments on the use of this band in the Caribbean. Two years later, these real-world deployments are now a reality. Therefore, it will be interesting to see how the Caribbean telecom industry responds to the URCA consultation.
Comments are due on November 1st.
No comments:
Post a Comment