Brussels, 08/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - In response to the consultation launched by the Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG) on the challenges posed by increasing demand on radio-electric spectrum for wireless applications which closed on 3 May, incumbent operators in the ETNO organisation called for a harmonised policy across the EU and, as far as possible, internationally. “The growing spectrum demand is a key issue and solutions identified will affect the uptake of mobile wireless broadband services for the decades to come. Streamlining the allocation of spectrum for wireless services will contribute to more harmonisation in network and consumer equipment... This will create more scale for producers and operators and will help advance the digital single market”, says Daniel Pataki, ETNO Director. Massimiliano Simoni, Chair of ETNO's Spectrum Issues Working Group said that it is very important to define a channel plan for the 700 MHz band compatible with Asia's, which has already adopted by many Central and South American countries, so to be encourage even wider harmonisation. The 700 MHz band, used until now for broadcasting terrestrial digital television channels, has been proposed for new, very bandwidth-hungry mobile services.
In a speech two months ago at the Global Mobile Congress, the biggest conference on the telecommunications sector in the world, Neelie Kroes argued that the 27 member states of the EU should harmonise their approach on the mobile spectrum and fibre-optic broadband, which would help create a genuine single market. She also deplored the half-hearted efforts Europe had made to free up the broadband spectrum. The EU allocated 1,200 megahertz of spectrum for wireless broadband but the member states have only allocated an average of 65%. Kroes described this approach has “unforgivably wasteful” and declared that the Commission was prepared to use the powers bestowed on it in the treaty to step up infringement procedures against member states that are dragging their feet (frequency allocation is a national area of responsibility and some countries do not see the Commission's intervention in the debate in a favourable light). The commissioner also castigated EU governments for having sold off spectrum broadband without really intending to spend the revenue from these sales on digital services. (IL/transl.fl)