6GHz 5G/IMT and mid-band spectrum needs

At the ongoing Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona 2022, there was a session on 6GHz 5G/IMT spectrum. This event was co-hosted by: BT, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica, Telia, Vodafone, Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia, and GSMA Intelligence.

Mobile broadband has been strategically deployed in many countries, 5G is not only another generation of mobile but it is also an enabling platform for what has been described as the “fourth industrial revolution”. While appearing futuristic today, smart cities, connected vehicles, smart deliveries with drones and robots will generate extreme traffic volumes which will add to the increasing data consumer requirements to deliver advanced applications, such as XR.

Recognizing the central role that spectrum plays for the development of 5G and its evolution, the global mobile organization GSMA recommends governments and regulators “to plan to make 2 GHz of mid-band spectrum available in the 2025-2030 time frame. This is the average value needed to guarantee the IMT-2020 requirements for 5G”.

Intense debate is ongoing on how the spectrum demand in mid-bands can be addressed: the future availability of the 6GHz spectrum is currently one of the hottest topics among policy-makers. The 6GHz band provides a unique opportunity to help address mid-band spectrum needs  5G licensed use of the 6GHz band will create great social and economic benefits for society. GSMA Intelligence has performed a socio-economic cost-benefit analysis to support policy-makers in their decisions on the most effective approach for the 6GHz band.

Kalvin Bahia, Principal Economist, GSMA Intelligence, welcomed everyone, and said they have been trying to address this in the last 6-12 months.

IMT mid-bands spectrum needs

Luiz Felippe Zoghbi, Senior Spectrum Policy Manager, GSMA Intelligence, talked about IMT mid-bands spectrum needs. 5G will have massive IoT or MIoT, URLLC, eMMB, and fixed wireless access (FWA). If we look at IMT-2020 requirements and all 5G spectrum ranges, there are sub-1GHz bands, 1.5-2.6GHz bands, 3.5GHz, 4.8GHz and 6GHz in mid-bands. The 5G vision is to provide 100Mbps download and 50Mbps upload user experienced data rate any time, anywhere, while on the move.

Luiz Felippe Zoghbi

GSMA Intelligence has report on mid-band spectrum needs covering 36 cities, available spectrum by 2025, etc. Densely populated cities on average a total of 2GHz of mid-band spectrum. IMT-2020 requirements will be at risk with less spectrum, and significantly more base stations would be needed. Additional base stations can generate carbon footprint, etc.

In 3.5GHz, there are different positions around the world. Another band available is 6GHz. It is important as a mid-band between coverage and capacity. Mid-band spectrum has socio-economic benefits, going up to USD 610 billion by 2030.

Kalvin Bahia, GSMA Intelligence, spoke about the cost-benefit analysis of the allocation of 6GHz band during the 2021-2035 time period. Key benefit drivers include existing spectrum availability for licensed and unlicensed use, utilization of high-band spectrum for licensed and unlicensed users, and fixed broadband speeds. Not using 60GHz band would mean inefficient use of the spectrum.

Kalvin Bahia

Less spectrum assigned to 5G would mean lower speeds or higher costs. Also, assigning less spectrum to unlicensed use could create capacity crunch for Wi-Fi traffic. He showed three scenarios, Scenario 1 delivered the greatest benefits when FTTH/cable speeds are up to 5Gbps, and when 60GHz band is used for Wi-Fi.

In some other cases, scenario 3 provided the greatest benefit with speeds up to 10Gbps and 60GHz band is not used for Wi-Fi. The optimal assignment policy mainly depends on the expectations of 5G adoption, and fixed fiber/cable broadband in each market, along with the speeds offered to consumers.

Administrations’ decision making: Status and key issues

Stefan Zehle, CEO, Coleago Consulting Ltd moderated the session on administrations’ decision making: Status and key issues.

Eric Fournier, Director for Spectrum Planning and International Affairs, Agence Nationale des Fréquences (ANFR, France), said there is European harmonization for RLAN in 6GHz. EU has harmonized the 5945-6425MHz band. CEPT initiated studies for the upper 6GHz so that RLAN can operate in 6425-7125MHz band.

Eric Fournier

Target date is said to be May 2024, after WRC-23. At WRC-23, the main issue is FSS uplink protection. There are other issues, such as earth exploration without allocation status, but needs some solution, and other services such as fixed links, FSS downlink, etc.

As for the FSS uplink protection, France takes care of IMT and FSS interests. We probably need 6GHz for IMT or RLAN. There are arguments in Gigabit Society for RLAN 320MHz channels. WRC-23 decision is not yet known. RCC is strongly supporting IMT. Africa and Middle East are split.

Tariq Al Awadhi, Executive Director, Spectrum Affairs – Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA, United Arab Emirates), said over 5.3 billion people are subscribed to mobile services. 5G subscription uptake has been fast, with 234 million subscribers already. 5G will be dominant mobile connection by 2027, with 49% share.

Tariq Al Awadhi

UAE has a national 5G strategy. We are working on 5G and beyond since 2017. Success of 5G raises some questions. Some are about radiation hazards, spectrum harmonization, etc. GSMA has forecast 6GHz for use in urban areas. Reports are being made on 6GHz. Regulators are looking at different needs of radio communication services. They are also looking at new frequency bands. To proceed successfully, studies need to continue. Regulators would need to take balanced decisions around 6GHz during WRC-23.

Ms Olfa Jammeli, General Director, Frequency National Agency (ANF, Tunisia), spoke about 6GHz. We have received number of responses. ANF has included work of IMT in upper 6GHz spectrum. We have taken the step of postponing new microwave requests till WRC-23. Tunisia is reinforcing the mobile network. It has allocated 5GHz for Wi-Fi 6 since 2017. Tunisia will carefully approach the future allocation of 6GHz band.