Urgent action is required by all European Member States regarding the digital dividend reallocation across Europe
In every country in Europe, the switch-over from analogue to digital television will free up UHF spectrum, at frequencies below 1GHz. Consequently this spectrum, which has become known as the ‘digital dividend’, will be reallocated.
The decisions relating to this reallocation process are to be taken by each Member State, taking into account national circumstances as well as international context – in particular the identification by the 2007 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-07) of a sub-band between 790MHz and 862MHz for electronic communication services. Additionally, the European Commission has expressed in several reports its wish to see a homogeneous approach by Member States to the reallocation of the digital dividend; definitive guidelines are expected by the end of 2008.
It is widely recognised that the digital dividend is a complex and important issue that will have significant impact on the industry over a long period of time (probably 15–20 years). For instance, Eric Besson (Secretary of State in France, in charge of development of the digital economy) recently stated in front of the European Parliament that:
“… if Europe manages to co-ordinate properly with regard to the digital dividend, as it did for GSM, it will be in front of an historical opportunity …”.
The sooner decisions are taken by a Member State to reallocate spectrum and definitive plans are created for effective implementation, the more the beneficial the impact on that country.
Clear decisions and plans will also provide visibility to industry players such as broadcasters, telecoms operators and network equipment or terminal manufacturers. Decisions made in particular countries may also contribute to achieving a critical mass of users in Europe for specific services in specific frequency bands. This would create economies of scale which could, in particular, speed up the availability of network equipment, devices and handsets, increase the diversity of such products and lower prices.
In this context, fully harmonised decisions across Europe are desirable. However, in practice it appears that each country is unique in a number of ways, including geography, expected benefits to society, culture, legal compliance, current access to TV programmes (through DTT/cable/satellite/IPTV) and associated service take-up, current allocation of spectrum, interference issues with neighbouring countries and the status of the analogue switch-off and digital switch-over process. As a result, a focused debate is needed in each country, with a
co-ordinated approach at European level, leading to appropriate decisions that will maximise benefits and value creation throughout Europe.
Progress being made in Europe should be analysed in relation to what is happening in the USA. There the re-use of the UHF band has been discussed since 1997, adopted as law in 2001 and spectrum was awarded progressively until early 2008. As a result, the USA currently provides better visibility to the industry than does Europe, which may have an impact on business development priorities for international players. Hence, if not adopted in Europe, a planned and unified approach could, to some extent, be seen as the USA’s comeback to Europe’s success with GSM.
Analysys Mason has significant experience with regulators and industry players around Europe on spectrum issues, including Ofcom in the UK and the ARCEP in France. Our work for Ofcom includes an economic and technical analysis of alternative uses of the radio spectrum released by the switch to all-digital television broadcasting, as well as recommendations on how Ofcom should allocate the released spectrum. The ARCEP commissioned us to report on the optimum framework for releasing available spectrum to the market in a way that maximises benefits for the economy and society over time.
Our work for industry players includes spectrum licence bids, spectrum use optimisation and answering spectrum consultations for the regulators.
