ComReg: Ireland completely wireless in 10 years

damien

Ireland completely wireless in 10 years

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single4284

13.01.2005 - Ireland is leading Europe in the deployment of services on the 5.8Ghz spectrum, paving the way for innovative use of new technologies like WiMax, Ultra Wideband and cognitive radio, the chair of the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg), Isolde Goggin said yesterday, calling for greater use of unassigned radio spectrum in the Irish marketplace.
Goggin emphasized that unlike most other EU countries where radio frequencies are congested, Ireland has plenty of spectrum available for operators and entrepreneurs to carve out interesting new business opportunities. Speaking at yesterday’s Wireless Wednesday event on radio spectrum, Goggin’s colleague Dave Gunning, director of ComReg’s market framework division, said that each week, the regulator is issuing 80 to 100 spectrum licenses in applications ranging from public safety and defense to commercial applications.

Goggin indicated that ComReg is currently carrying out a review of the radio spectrum market in Ireland as part of its statutory requirements and said that at present spectrum – defined as including broadcasting, fixed links, air services, mobile and short range devices – is worth €1.9 billion annually to Ireland, approximately 1.4pc of the country’s total economy. The sector employs 24,798, according to ComReg figures.

Market drivers like convergence, demand for broadband, multi-channel TV and mobile multimedia content as well as rapid developments in technologies like WiMax, cognitive radio and Ultra Wideband coupled with improved spectrum efficiency were making wireless a more and more compelling field, Goggin said.

She indicated that in Europe, Ireland is now considered a “test bed” for the 5.8GHz spectrum. Successful harnessing of WiMax, Ultra Wideband and other technologies like RFID could have important implications in applications ranging from commerce to e-government. “Ireland’s low population offers considerable advantages in the radio spectrum field and it is important that we leverage this going forward by ensuring flexible and ease of access to radio spectrum,” she said.

Her colleague Dave Gunning said that if Ireland succeeds in moving to a more liberalized approach to spectrum, “there is no reason why Ireland can’t become a fully wireless country in 10 years time.”

He illustrated his point by saying that there are “a lot of quiet zones on Ireland’s radio spectrum and the radio spectrum as a whole is mostly uncongested. A key role for ComReg will be to encourage a test and trial licensing regime.”

Gunning added that radio spectrum has a tangible economic value and that optimal use of spectrum depends on factors such as public policy, economic and market conditions, social considerations, available technology and legal factors such as EU Framework obligations.

Jim Connolly, ComReg’s senior manager in charge of radio spectrum, pointed out that there are currently large amounts of unassigned radio spectrum in the Irish market, particularly in the mobile communications space. “There is a total of 40Mhz unassigned in the GSM 1800 (2.5G) space while there is 25Mhz of unassigned spectrum in the 3G space, plus one 3G license assignment that no one has take up.”

Connolly added that most of the available 3G space has been set aside for the future enhancement of 3G applications in Ireland such as more video transmission and higher speed data services, but said that it still leaves considerable chunks of frequency unclaimed. “Future scenarios we have identified could include small regional GSM networks for other service providers in 2Khz blocks made available either by auction or beauty contest.”

By John Kennedy

bminish

Unfortunately it's mostly the usual comreg PR rubbish

Patting themselves on the back for the light licence on 5.8 which we got before it was ratified at an Eu level.
Whilst glossing over the fact that they have bungled many of the 3.5 Ghz issues, justifying the chunk at 2.5 Ghz that they are reserving in perpetuity for possible 3G expansion which could be used (as it is already elsewhere ) for wireless Point to Multi-point. The future in Ireland is Wireless partially due to the mess Comreg have made of regulating the telcos, particularly the incumbent

Cognitive radio and UWB are just buzzwords at this stage.
Cognitive radio is this idea of allowing unlicensed / lightly licenced users into other people's allocations IF the radio system is smart enough to avoid dynamically, frequencies that are in use, it's not likely to work well and is years away. Cognitive radio solves a problem that we don't currently have, Congestion due to large swathes of spectrum being sat on for strategic market purposes due to spectrum auctions.

UWB as it stands will be a short range Bluetooth replacement and will, if not managed cause interference to other microwave users, However the UWB people don't want to have to remain within allocated sections of spectrum since this would make UWB equipment more costly because it would require UWB radios to have a 'front end'

RFID is something that most of us don't particularly want since one of it's primary purposes is to track more closely consumer habits in retail markets and has privacy issues that will need careful monitoring

The test licences that they refer to are nothing unusual, almost all countries have such regimes.

.Brendan

Slutmonkey57b

Jim Connolly, ComReg’s senior manager in charge of radio spectrum, pointed out that there are currently large amounts of unassigned radio spectrum in the Irish market, particularly in the mobile communications space. “There is a total of 40Mhz unassigned in the GSM 1800 (2.5G) space while there is 25Mhz of unassigned spectrum in the 3G space, plus one 3G license assignment that no one has take up.”

A more insightful manager might start to wonder why that was the case...

Rather than boasting about how they're adding to the unused spectrum with yet more spectrum.

Capt'n Midnight

Supprised they didn't try to sneak in two way satellite to show that Ireland is already wireless. One disadvantage with wireless is the bandwidth is shared by all users of the same base station. This can set a hard limit to the amount of traffic. Fibre will allow you much more, if the telco's allow the taxpayers to benefit from the subsidies they have paid the telco's for fibre. If not then it will be the consumers who will have to pay another time for comms.

Remember none of the major telecoms are undercutting Eircom by enough to threaten it's viability. And the BIG Eircom investors have more than got every penny back since privatisation (ie. we've paid the price of a replacement company) and Comreg are boasting that we'll pay for another replacement network...

pork99

In the meantime our govt has thrown €50,800,000 down the toilet to achieve precisely nothing; http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single4300