Advanced Television

Spectrum

Ergen settles spectrum battle

Charlie Ergen’s Dish Network won a large slice of new bandwidth in the FCC’s AWS-3 spectrum auction earlier this year. Dish paid a total of $13.3 billion for the rights. Now he is handing some of it back. Some of the allocated bandwidth was paid for through two Dish subsidiaries, Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless […]

October 2, 2015

DVB to assess the future of terrestrial broadcasting

The commercial module of digital TV standards body DVB has been working on ‘Defining the Long Term Vision for Terrestrial Broadcast’, with a view to publishing its findings later in 2105. Graham Mills, Chair of the Commercial Module, noted that DTT is thriving in many countries, with DVB-T2 the leading standard, having been adopted around […]

September 14, 2015Colin Mann @ IBC

5G connections to reach 240m by 2025

A report from Juniper Research forecasts rapid adoption for 5G from 2025 onwards, with active connections representing a threefold increase from 2024 to reach 240 million by then. However, this will represent a very limited global reach, accounting for approximately 3 per cent of global mobile connections. Juniper found that the many advantages of 5G […]

September 8, 2015

Satellite could lose some C-band spectrum

A Geneva meeting last week of the world’s major international spectrum regulators seemed to indicate that today’s satellite transmissions in C-band are by no means likely to stay intact – at least for terrestrial transmissions – when the larger World Radio Telecommunications Conference (WRC) takes place in November. The Geneva meeting last week heard from […]

September 8, 2015By Chris Forrester

WBU pleads for Spectrum retention for TV

The World Broadcasting Union (WBU) has made a strong case for broadcasting’s existing spectrum usage to be left alone at the upcoming World Radio Congress (WRC-15). The WBU statement was issued on behalf of its various association members (ABU, ASBU, AUB, EUB, etc) and stated: “The use of radio-frequency spectrum by broadcasters remains the most […]

August 12, 2015By Chris Forrester

GSMA calls for Arab States UHF spectrum co-allocation

Trade body the GSMA – which represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide – has published a new report finding that terrestrial digital television broadcasting in the Arab States does not need an exclusive allocation of the UHF spectrum band (470-694MHz). The report, Terrestrial Broadcasting and Spectrum Use in the Arab States, developed by Plum […]

August 11, 2015

5G revenues to exceed $65bn by 2025

A far-sighted report from Juniper Research forecasts a healthy adoption for 5G, with service revenues set to exceed $65 billion (€59.8bn) by 2025, compared to just $100 million during its first year of commercial services in 2020. This figure would represent approximately 7 per cent of all operator-billed service revenues. Juniper notes that while the […]

August 5, 2015

France launches fresh HD DTT tender

France’s broadcast regulator the Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (CSA) has issued a new call for bids to offer nationwide services in HD on the country’s DTT platform. The move is part of the evolution of France’s DTT platform announced in April 2016 by the Government, following the transfer of the 700 MHz frequency band to […]

July 31, 2015By Colin Mann

France votes for 700 MHz reallocation

France’s National Assembly has voted unanimously to accept a socialist party proposal to allow the allocation to mobile telephony of frequencies in the 700 MHz band currently used by digital terrestrial television, as well as the modernisation of DTT in France. “On a very technical appearance, this text has great political significance,” declared Fleur Pellerin, […]

June 24, 2015By Colin Mann

German spectrum auction raises over €5bn

After 16 days and 181 rounds, the spectrum auction for mobile broadband has concluded. All three companies, Telefónica Deutschland, Telekom Deutschland and Vodafone, were successful in bidding for spectrum in line with their business models: Undertaking Amount of spectrum Award price Telefónica Deutschland GmbH & Co. OHG 700 MHz: 900 MHz: 1800 MHz: 2 x 10 MHz 2 x 10 MHz 2 x 10 MHz € 1,198,238,000 Telekom […]

June 19, 2015By Colin Mann