August 5, 2019

Ofcom says that farmers, factories and business parks are some of the groups that could benefit from “a revolution in wireless technology”, following its decision to open up airwaves to enable innovation and support new services.

To help promote wireless innovation across the UK economy, Ofcom has decided to open up airwaves that previously could only be used by certain parties.

Under a new sharing framework, these airwaves will be available for local use by a range of other parties, such as small businesses or pioneering start-up firms. Ofcom is making airwaves available in four frequency bands on a shared basis:

• the 1800 MHz and 2300 MHz shared spectrum bands, which are currently used for mobile services;
• the 3.8-4.2 GHz band, which supports the latest 5G mobile technology; and
• the 26 GHz band, which has also been identified as one of the main bands for 5G in the future. Ofcom has added this band since first proposing its spectrum sharing approach in December 2018.

Ofcom says that it is also allowing different groups to access airwaves licensed to mobile companies, but not being used by them. To read Ofcom’s news release in full, click here.