Highest bidders will be awarded 4G wireless spectrum - ComReg

bealtine

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/item/23283-highest-bidders-will-be/

Ireland’s telecoms regulator ComReg has finally published a draft decision on the proposed auction of the 800MHz, 900MHz and 1800MHz spectrum bands that will be vital for next generation broadband and 4G mobile services like Long Term Evolution.

While it hasn’t yet published a date for the auction as a final decision won’t be expected until later in the Autumn, it said the action would assign spectrum rights across these three bands for the period 2013 to 2030.

ComReg said that 28 blocks of spectrum are to be made available in total, with each block comprising 2 x 5MHz of spectrum.

The blocks of spectrum will be awarded to firms that make the highest bids.

There will be two auction phases – the first to determine the amount of spectrum a bidder has won rights to and the second to determine the location in the spectrum band.
Auctions will be vital to investment decisions around Next Generation Broadband

ComReg said there will be a competition cap on what any bidder can win of up to 10 blocks of spectrum, with a maximum of four blocks below 1000MHz.

Telecoms firms have complained that lack of information to date about the proposed auctions have held up investment decisions by their parent companies.

ComReg says the auction will now enable the telcos to pitch to their parent companies and win the necessary investment in order to usher in a new era of advanced wireless services.

The 800MHz and 900MHz spectrum bands in particular are seen as vital for enabling 100pc broadband connectivity across the country as well as higher quality reception inside buildings.

ComReg has called for written comments from interested parties to be sent in by 5pm 30 September, after which it will publish its final decision.

John Kennedy

clohamon

Response to Consultation and Draft Decision
http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg1160.pdf

Coverage p(123-125)

In summary, and having taken full account of respondent‘s views, DotEcon‘s recommendation133 and its own analysis, ComReg is of the view that that the proposed 70% (population) minimum level is proportionate, reasonable and appropriate having regard to ComReg‘s statutory objectives and actual coverage levels are likely to significantly exceed this amount. Therefore ComReg proposes that a minimum coverage obligation of 70 % (population) coverage should be applied to all liberalised licences.

Broadband (p133)

ComReg believes that it is not appropriate to set a QoS obligation for broadband services. With a broadband service, the service provider is clearly known to the consumer and so normal customer service arrangements can be used. This is notably different to the voice market where the quality of service problem could relate to the subscriber network or the called party‘s network, a matter discussed in greater detail at Annex 8. Consumers would not likely be negatively affected by the absence of licence mandated minimum speeds for mobile broadband because customers have little problem establishing who is responsible if they receive a standard of service that does not meet their QoS expectations and can change their provider accordingly.
Furthermore, ComReg notes that where broadband services do not perform as advertised there may be remedies available both in contract and pursuant to, inter alia, the Consumer Protection Act 2007.
ComReg considers that imposing minimum broadband speeds could prevent operators from offering a low cost, low speed option leading to a reduced choice for consumers. This would particularly affect those consumers for whom speed is not a priority.

The emphasis seems to be on raising the implicit value of the licences by lowering the obligations. There would seem to be no point in doing that if the supply of spectrum on offer already exceeded demand. Perhaps they're hoping for a fifth bidder.

lucernarian

A fifth bidder.... That's just what we need. Further dilution of spectrum so that consumers have a choice of 5 technically-handicapped operators each offering poor service in congested urban areas and an undermining of the economic case for rural rollouts by the presence of so many competitors wanting to do the same thing.

That's not strictly true and competition should result in better service for consumers but there will be areas where the economics of serving an area are based on the operator having a natural monopoly.

It's interesting how ComReg haven't discussed advancing the use of MVNOs in more isolated areas to allow for the pooling together of resources. So far there's only been ad-hoc efforts by the likes of Meteor with O2 to achieve this.

ComReg should also be aware that as UMTS technologies stand, there can't simply be a speed tier imposed on different package levels like there is for DSL and EuroDOCSIS. Perhaps LTE is different and people can pay a lower amount to get a small proportion of the max theoretical speed? Of course the operators wouldn't want that as they know well the variability of speeds is hard to objectively quantify per user and also how that only in a small minority of cases can top speeds be reached anyway!

watty

So forget about the Digital Dividend, LTE or anything else Wireless for next 20 year to do anything other than more of the same.

Proof that Comreg (and Ofcom) are more interested in short term revenue raising than strategic utilisation of a single resource.

Stupidity. Even if you are fixated on Mobile, a single RAN is the only sensible solution. Everyone as MVNOs on it.

The highest bidders will be mobile as that has lowest per user install cost. Fixed wireless is EIGHT times better utilisation of spectrum and cheaper base stations, gives true broadband and real tiered packages. But the per user install cost on top of hardware is nearly €200 per customer. It will never happen without Regulator reservation of spectrum for true fixed use (not an Imagine WiMax debacle) and economic licence cost.

More mobile does NOTHING for the country's infrastructure or Broadband. Simply once off revenue to Treasury and then most of the Mobile Revenue leaves the country.

We don't need more mobile.

clohamon

watty wrote: »

So forget about the Digital Dividend, LTE or anything else Wireless for next 20 year to do anything other than more of the same.

Proof that Comreg (and Ofcom) are more interested in short term revenue raising than strategic utilisation of a single resource.

Stupidity. Even if you are fixated on Mobile, a single RAN is the only sensible solution. Everyone as MVNOs on it.

The highest bidders will be mobile as that has lowest per user install cost. Fixed wireless is EIGHT times better utilisation of spectrum and cheaper base stations, gives true broadband and real tiered packages. But the per user install cost on top of hardware is nearly €200 per customer. It will never happen without Regulator reservation of spectrum for true fixed use (not an Imagine WiMax debacle) and economic licence cost.

More mobile does NOTHING for the country's infrastructure or Broadband. Simply once off revenue to Treasury and then most of the Mobile Revenue leaves the country.

We don't need more mobile.

Agreed, but would you please make that argument to Comreg, in a form that would force them to respond.