Ofcom recently published their Consultation on 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz spectrum. This opens a once in a technology-lifetime opportunity to shape the evolution of communications in the UK and rest of the world. The IET asks - are we being bold enough to achieve the potential of this new revolution in radio?
To help answer some of these questions the IET Communications Policy Panel, with the support of Cambridge Wireless, held a one day conference on the subject with leading business and technical experts to address some of the issues and opportunities that exist.
Discussions we held on two themes;
- The next generation mobile standard, LTE – Long Term Evolution, and how this may be utilised in conjunction with Femto Cell technology to extend coverage, improve data transfer speeds and enable a new generation of networked services and applications.
- Following on from this, options were reviewed as to how the shortly to be released 800 Mhz could may be utilised in conjunction with the for mentioned technologies to facilitate greater penetration into the rural areas that currently have little or no broadband connectivity.
These discussions highlighted a number of policy concerns and opportunities that need to be addressed by both Ofcom and government.
Presentations