5G tech supercharges coming fight over 28GHz spectrum

Samsung’s revelation that it is developing 5G multi-gigabit wireless technology in the 28GHz band has thrown a bombshell into an already contentious debate over the future of the spectrum band in Australia with the current holdings of AAPT and NBN Co scheduled to come up for renewal within months.

Satellite players are already coveting the band, and CommsDay can reveal that incumbent AAPT is planning metro fixed wireless coverage using the same frequency; the additional prospect of nextgeneration mobile services there can only pile on additional pressure.

As Samsung said in its statement, there have been some reservations around the use of millimetrewave Ka bands such as 28GHz for cellular communications; their propagation
characteristics were not thought suitable for transmitting data over long distances.

Samsung, though, says it has deployed adaptive array transceiver technologies using 64 antenna elements to counter these drawbacks and access the potential of the bands to provide wider spectrum channels.

“Samsung plans to accelerate the research and development of 5G mobile
communications technologies, including adaptive array transceiver at the millimetre-wave bands, to commercialize those technologies by 2020,’ said the firm. “Once commercialised, 5G mobile communications technology will be capable of ultrahigh-speed data transmission up to several hundred times faster than even the 4G LTE-Advanced technology due for launch later this year.”

AUSTRALIAN SPECTRUM CLASH: There is already a debate escalating in Australia over 28GHz in the short to medium term – and Samsung’s news is only likely to add an extra dimension to that showdown.

AAPT snapped up all spectrum in the band (defined in Australia as 27.5-28.35GHz), together with
300MHz in 31GHz, for A$66.2 million in a 1999 auction. That gave AAPT national coverage in both
bands on a 15-year spectrum license basis; Telstra and Optus were both prohibited from acquiring any spectrum in either band. That spectrum was originally earmarked for the deployment of local multipoint distribution services.

But LMDS never saw the level of adoption that had been expected, and AAPT kept hold of all its winnings until early 2012, when it sold some of its 28GHz holdings to NBN Co for the latter’s satellite services at an undisclosed price – primarily (and logically) in rural and regional areas. AAPT retained all of its 31GHz spectrum.

Both sets of licenses are due to expire in January next year, and the Australian Communications and Media Authority is currently in the middle of a review of the two bands. Coming from the start point that both are currently under-utilised, the ACMA’s preliminary view is that a reversion to 5-year appa-Samsung’s 5G test lab ratus licensing for both bands – albeit with an emphasis on continuity of service for current spectrum licensees will “best accommodate the range of technologies that are likely to be high-value of uses of the 28GHz band… [and] may better allow for the introduction of technologies in the 31GHz band as and when demand for those technologies emerges.”

AAPT VS SATELLITE PLAYERS: AAPT, though, has argued for a hybrid approach: it is happy to see 31GHz licenses and some 28GHz licenses revert to apparatus licensing, but wants to retain three contiguous bands of 112MHz each within 28GHz under a spectrum licensing regime, in metro areas only. To date, the firm has remained tight-lipped about its plans for those 112MHz bands – but CEO David Yuile filled CommsDay in on the detail.

“We saw a resurgence of interest [in 28GHz] about 2-3 years ago, initially around using it for backhaul for mobile networks,” he said. “We saw a lot of technology development around meshing and point-tomultipoint; and we started to get excited, because we saw that you could potentially get 500Mbps to 1Gbps over these multi-point links… we saw enough evidence that we decided to actually resubmit; to renew the spectrum with a view that there’s significant potential in it.”

“We never saw it as a mobile network… we saw it as a fixed wireless service… to provide fixed wireless backhaul [or other network elements] with huge capacity,” added Yuile. One of the key advantages, he said, would be that the point-to-point technology could obviate the cost-prohibitive planning overheads required for individual links. “We saw the potential for non-planned networks; you put up a canopy from a central point, and you can have lots of points join it from anywhere within that canopy…. it’d almost self-heal, and self-[configure].”

But that would require the contiguous blocks of spectrum that AAPT wants to retain – and, said Yuile, a move from spectrum licenses to fixed point-to-point apparatus licenses would doom the project. “When you’re talking high volume, high density areas, the cost of that planning is horrible... for every link you wanted to run to somebody’s house or business, you’d have to go to the ACMA and submit for an apparatus license… after making sure that nobody else was using it,” he said. “There’s enough room in the 28GHz band in Australia to have apparatus, and a clear band for this [as well].”

Yuile says that Samsung’s announcement won’t change his intention to hand over the rest of AAPT’s metro spectrum for apparatus licensing. “Because of the timing around the spectrum, we saw the technology coming, but we didn’t know from whom or where!” he said. But he does face stiff opposition from satellite operators including NewSat, Inmarsat and SES.

All of them have argued that the current spectrum licensing of 28 and 31GHz has the effect of segmenting the internationally allocated Ka band, making it difficult to find contiguous bandwidth there problematic in context of a sharp increase in the number of Ka-band satellites planned and deployed worldwide, as satellite operators seek to increase bandwidth. Each has called for the 28GHz band, in particular, to be shifted to an apparatus licensing regime across all Australia – without geographic exceptions.

“This would allow the band to be used by earth stations and fixed systems on a first come-first served basis, meeting the immediate needs of Inmarsat and offering maximum flexibility to all terrestrial and satellite applications to make use of this bandwidth,” said Inmarsat in a recent submission. Even Telstra has chimed in to support an Australia-wide shift to apparatus licensing.
What remains to be seen is how the prospect of 28GHz 5G plays into the clash in the wake of Samsung’s announcement. That will partly depend on exactly how Samsung defines the 28GHz band it used in trials; the band is defined differently by the ACMA in Australia than by Europe and the ITU, for example.

It will also depend on whether mobile players like Optus and Telstra are allowed to acquire any spectrum in the band next time around – which could create more tension with satellite players.
Still, next-generation mobile broadband in the band is already on the regulator’s radar. “Higher radiofrequency ranges are being looked at and considered by the international radiocommunications community for use by mobile broadband applications. Australia is involved in this process through the ITURadiocommunication Sector work,” an ACMA spokesman told CommsDay. “These considerations are for long term planning arrangements – to which we note that the Samsung technology may be commercialised around the year 2020 so also a long term consideration.”

Petroc Wilton, CommsDay

ACMA proposes re-issue of unused 2GHz spectrum

The Australian Communications and Media Authority has recommended that the communications minister issue spectrum licences for residual spectrum in the 2GHz band. However, it has held off making a similar recommendation for the 800MHz and 1800MHz bands until after their expiry date.

The 800MHz and the first batch of licences in the 1800MHz bands are due to expire next month.
While the most likely scenario is that the licences will be re-issued to the existing holders, the ACMA has been consulting with the industry on how to handle the allocation of any non-reissued spectrum in those bands.

However, the 2GHz band already had unallocated spectrum lots: when it was originally made available in 2001, a number of lots in Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Darwin and Hobart were passed in at auction and no spectrum licences were issued for them.

The ACMA has now finished its consultation, which received submissions from Telstra, Optus and the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association. The submissions supported ACMA's position that the communications minister designate for allocation by licensing any frequency ranges in the 800 MHz and 1800 MHz that are not re-issued prior to expiry as well as the residual spectrum in the 2 GHz band.

As a result, the ACMA has now recommended the following allocations be issued spectrum licences:
 1915–1920 MHz in Canberra, Darwin and Hobart
 1930–1935 MHz and 2120–2125 MHz in Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Darwin and Hobart
 1920–1930 MHz and 2110–2120 MHz in Darwin and Hobart
For the 800 MHz and 1800 MHz bands that expire on the 17 June, the regulator said the outcome of the re-issue process is unlikely to be known prior to that date, with a decision to be made sometime after the expiry date. However, it also noted in its discussion paper that expects that all spectrum licences in these bands will be reissued.

AMTA, whose members include spectrum licence holders Optus, Telstra and Vodafone, said in its submission that it supported AMTA's views on re-allocation and also noted that there was increasing demand from the mobile sector for 2GHz spectrum.

“AMTA believes that it is desirable to continue spectrum licensing arrangements in these bands and therefore supports the ACMA’s policy approach that will ensure spectrum licensing continues where reallocation declarations are no longer in force,” AMTA policy manager Lisa Brown noted.
“AMTA believes that there is increasing demand for access to spectrum in the 2 GHz band for mobile broadband services and therefore supports the ACMA’s proposal to make the residual spectrum in the 2 GHz band available to the market,” she added.

In a separate submission, Telstra also supported the ACMA's plans, noting that there would be demand for any spectrum that became available.

“Telstra considers that there will be strong interest from the mobile sector in any spectrum licensed space in the 800 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2 GHz bands that is not reissued or which has already reverted to apparatus licensing. This interest will be driven by the need for operators to expand their mobile networks in these core mobile bands to meet the ongoing growth in demand from customers for mobile broadband services,” the carrier said in its submission.

Optus also backed the regulator, noting that its proposals would ensure spectrum licensing is retained as the licensing approach where re-allocation declarations are no longer in force.

Geoff Long, CommsDay