Design of 4G spectrum auctions could cost Irish Exchequer €300m

bealtine

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/item/27532-design-of-4g-spectrum-aucti

The optimal potential of Ireland’s 4G spectrum auctions could be offset by as much as €300m due to the design of the spectrum blocks, it has been claimed.

Broadband group IrelandOffline has warned that the 4G spectrum auction designed by ComReg could cost the taxpayer.

It points out that the dispersed rural population of Ireland is not suited to the design chosen by ComReg.

IrelandOffline's Eamon Wallace said only urban areas benefit from having multiple networks and as a result rural areas will suffer.

He said each winner of spectrum at auction will have an obligation to cover 70pc of the population for the next 20 years.

But the problem is that 70pc of Ireland's population only occupies 10pc of the land area of the State.

“The immediate victim will be the Irish taxpayer and the ultimate victim will be the people living in 85pc of the State whose coverage will be worse over the 20-year lifetime of these licences," Wallace explained.

“The reason why the Swiss taxpayer got €800m at auction for the same spectrum in March 2012 (for only 8m inhabitants) is because the networks can continue to share masts in rural areas as they have already done for 10 years. No new masts will be required to roll out the new services.

“The competition should have been designed to allow operators to fully share in rural areas (RAN Sharing), where they never competed anyway and to compete in urban areas. However, the spectrum is sliced up into tiny blocks which are not usable for high-speed mobile broadband and these separate blocks will be served from separate masts owned by separate operators. Large blocks of short-range spectrum suitable only for urban areas will become available for auction next year as the MMDS TV services shut down in April 2014 and free the spectrum up.

“In rural areas, the operators should have been required, not only to share their spectrum, but to share single masts, as well. This would mean that only one physical network would exist in most of the State and one set of masts is all that is required but would also pool large blocks of spectrum on those masts capable of delivering high-speed mobile services into the future. There is no competition in these areas currently," he pointed out.
The forthcoming 4G auctions

ComReg said in March that provided there are no further objections to a current consultation should be the final step before a date for the auctions is set.

The spectrum auctions are critical because as well as paving the way for 4G technologies like LTE that are featured in the new iPad with speeds up to 73Mbps possible, former 2G bands can be used to provide 3G coverage to greater swathes of the population.

In total, 280 MHz of sub-2 GHz spectrum (ie, 140 MHz of paired spectrum) will be made available, more than doubling the currently licensed assignments in these particular bands.

ComReg said it will be a combinatorial clock auction, meaning it allows bidders to make packaged bids over multiple rounds of bidding within a prescribed timeframe.

The winners of spectrum will be those who make the highest bids.
Ireland's wireless spectrum auctions - the lots

The 800 MHz band is the frequency range 791-821MHz paired with 832-862 MHz which comprises six paired 5 MHz lots.
The 900 MHz band is the frequency range 880-915 MHz paired with 925-960 MHz which comprises seven paired 5 MHz lots.
The 1800 MHz band is the frequency range 1710-1785 MHz paired with 1805-1880 MHz which comprises 15 paired 5 MHz lots.

John Kennedy

watty

Stupidity and waste

791- 862 MHz gives 71MHz up link
871 - 960 gives 89 MHz down link

The 900 MHz band is the frequency range 880-915 MHz paired with 925-960 MHz

Where is the unused GSM-R and virtually unused Digiweb Mobile Allocation?

The Comreg proposal is 13 x 5MHz = 65MHz upload and 65MHz download with Peak speed of 21Mbps and fragmentation.


My proposal gives 71MHz up link (uploads don't need as much space) and gives 89 MHz down link. allows a peak speed of 100Mbps for Mobile and about x4 more average capacity run as single RAN.
If used for DOCSIS 3 fixed Wireless in some areas rather than mobile, (It's actually an ill-suited band for modern Mobile, cells are too large, 1800MHz is better for smaller cells = more capacity) you'll get 15Mbps at peak time and 20Mbps of peak in entire mast area. Mobile peak speeds are for 1 User and less than 2% of mast coverage area, peak time speeds in a popular area on Mobile on 20MHz channels will be 1Mbps.

Unlike Mobile LTE, outdoor aerial Fixed Wireless DOCSIS on 800MHz creates no interference for Cable Broadband, Cable TV and Saorview DTT. The 800MHz mobile WILL interfere with all these.

football_lover

bealtine wrote: »

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/item/27532-design-of-4g-spectrum-aucti

The optimal potential of Ireland’s 4G spectrum auctions could be offset by as much as €300m due to the design of the spectrum blocks, it has been claimed.

Broadband group IrelandOffline has warned that the 4G spectrum auction designed by ComReg could cost the taxpayer.

It points out that the dispersed rural population of Ireland is not suited to the design chosen by ComReg.

IrelandOffline's Eamon Wallace said only urban areas benefit from having multiple networks and as a result rural areas will suffer.


He said each winner of spectrum at auction will have an obligation to cover 70pc of the population for the next 20 years.

But the problem is that 70pc of Ireland's population only occupies 10pc of the land area of the State.

“The immediate victim will be the Irish taxpayer and the ultimate victim will be the people living in 85pc of the State whose coverage will be worse over the 20-year lifetime of these licences," Wallace explained.

“The reason why the Swiss taxpayer got €800m at auction for the same spectrum in March 2012 (for only 8m inhabitants) is because the networks can continue to share masts in rural areas as they have already done for 10 years. No new masts will be required to roll out the new services.

“The competition should have been designed to allow operators to fully share in rural areas (RAN Sharing), where they never competed anyway and to compete in urban areas. However, the spectrum is sliced up into tiny blocks which are not usable for high-speed mobile broadband and these separate blocks will be served from separate masts owned by separate operators. Large blocks of short-range spectrum suitable only for urban areas will become available for auction next year as the MMDS TV services shut down in April 2014 and free the spectrum up.

“In rural areas, the operators should have been required, not only to share their spectrum, but to share single masts, as well. This would mean that only one physical network would exist in most of the State and one set of masts is all that is required but would also pool large blocks of spectrum on those masts capable of delivering high-speed mobile services into the future. There is no competition in these areas currently," he pointed out.
The forthcoming 4G auctions

ComReg said in March that provided there are no further objections to a current consultation should be the final step before a date for the auctions is set.

The spectrum auctions are critical because as well as paving the way for 4G technologies like LTE that are featured in the new iPad with speeds up to 73Mbps possible, former 2G bands can be used to provide 3G coverage to greater swathes of the population.

In total, 280 MHz of sub-2 GHz spectrum (ie, 140 MHz of paired spectrum) will be made available, more than doubling the currently licensed assignments in these particular bands.

ComReg said it will be a combinatorial clock auction, meaning it allows bidders to make packaged bids over multiple rounds of bidding within a prescribed timeframe.

The winners of spectrum will be those who make the highest bids.
Ireland's wireless spectrum auctions - the lots

The 800 MHz band is the frequency range 791-821MHz paired with 832-862 MHz which comprises six paired 5 MHz lots.
The 900 MHz band is the frequency range 880-915 MHz paired with 925-960 MHz which comprises seven paired 5 MHz lots.
The 1800 MHz band is the frequency range 1710-1785 MHz paired with 1805-1880 MHz which comprises 15 paired 5 MHz lots.

John Kennedy

Hi bealtine.


This could cost more than 300m to the economy what is at stake here is worth hundreds of billions of euros.

What we are seeing happening here is government and state only having a short term view of economics they are cutting of the irish economic nose to suit a auction face that may raise a few hundred million when the Irish GDP is about 160 billion euro's.

Ireland needs to grow its GDP by a few hundred billion extra so as to increase the standard of living in Ireland.

Communications technology is one of the biggest structures that an economy is built upon. There could be many small business start ups that will come out of rural Ireland but this coverage and auction will kill most of that.

I am some one who is planning to start up a business in rural Ireland but will be unable to do so without 4G communications technology. The areas of business that I am planing to develop are based in Automation, industrial Augment reality tools, Smart manufacturing technologies and various software systems. This issue could drive me out of Ireland completely as I am pretty sick of the mentality that Ireland is based upon.

I am starting some email campaigns that will be media, education and politics focused. If you have any ideas or concepts to discuss please reply.

bealtine

football_lover wrote: »

This could cost more than 300m to the economy what is at stake here is worth hundreds of billions of euros.

This is just about the immediate cost to the exchequer, of course the cost to the overall economy will be horrendous

I am some one who is planning to start up a business in rural Ireland but will be unable to do so without 4G communications technology. The areas of business that I am planing to develop are based in Automation, industrial Augment reality tools, Smart manufacturing technologies and various software systems. This issue could drive me out of Ireland completely as I am pretty sick of the mentality that Ireland is based upon.

I do a lot of manufacturing systems too and connectivity is the main reason I'm so worried about Ireland falling behind. I don't think that 4G is the solution to the problem though, it may be good as an interim step as the telcos roll out fibre to masts and maybe communities can then connect to the fibre. Decent fixed line broadband is the solution whether you live in Ballydehob or Malin Head

I am starting some email campaigns that will be media, education and politics focused. If you have any ideas or concepts to discuss please reply.

The more emails politicians get on the subject the better, I know IoffL have sent many emails on the subject as I got them in my inbox but politicians simply don't care or understand.

football_lover

bealtine wrote: »

This is just about the immediate cost to the exchequer, of course the cost to the overall economy will be horrendous




I do a lot of manufacturing systems too and connectivity is the main reason I'm so worried about Ireland falling behind. I don't think that 4G is the solution to the problem though, it may be good as an interim step as the telcos roll out fibre to masts and maybe communities can then connect to the fibre. Decent fixed line broadband is the solution whether you live in Ballydehob or Malin Head




The more emails politicians get on the subject the better, I know IoffL have sent many emails on the subject as I got them in my inbox but politicians simply don't care or understand.

My strategy is to send group emails so as to play politicians of against one other.There is no point sending a single email they will just ignore it. The point of the group email is so that receivers can see all the names on the list. My group emails are also going to be aimed at media so as to start driving this issue. The reason that this issue is sneaking under the carpet is that we in Ireland have an ignorant attitude to economics and business we have allowed politics and big interest groups to shape this country.

I am also going to go and meet politicians face to face so as to make them understand the nature of what is happening and what is at stake for the economics of the country.

4G is one of the most important solutions to allow advanced industries in the rural setting were it is not economically feasible to dig up roads to fit fiber optics for just on house or small business. 4G can overcome the last mile issue takes it very expensive for fixed line systems.

There will be no smart economy without 4G as this will be infrastructure that embedded electronics will be based upon.

In Germany the Mittelstand is the life blood of there economy and this is the reason that Germany adapted a bottom ups approach to 4G.

watty

4G is nearly irrelevant to Broadband, but the process here makes it be just another alternative to 3G that will offer almost the same and cost more. 3G here is 1/4 as good as it could be.

No-one makes money out of 3G data. It's the voice and SMS that makes the money. Those are pointless on 4G.

watty

were it is not economically feasible to dig up roads to fit fiber optics for just on house or small business. 4G can overcome the last mile issue takes it very expensive for fixed line systems.

Biggest myth.

If it can get ESB it can get Fibre cheaper! In a very small percentage of cases Fixed Wireless is cheaper and unlike LTE it delivers real Broadband. The 25Mbps (5MHz) or 100MHz (20MHz channels) are PEAK shared speeds on LTE for ONLY ONE user connected, in less than 2% of cell area! With 10 simultaneous connections the speed is easily 1/40th on average. A 5MHz channel LTE in typical rural cell gives almost no increase over 3G.

3G, LTE etc are for MOBILE, on the go use, no fixed application should ever need it. In Germany it's priced and sold in a complementary fashion to real fixed broadband.