The technical basis for spectrum rights: Policies to enhance market efficiency

This paper describes a conceptual framework to articulate clear rights of access to radio spectrum in a way that would foster an efficient market-based allocation of the resource. In this approach, regulators partition spectrum rights across the dimensions of space, time, frequency, and direction of propagation. They devolve each partition, called a licensed electrospace region (LER), to licensees who may buy, sell, aggregate, and subdivide their LERs at will. All signals outside an LER must have a power level of less than a regulated limit with de minimis exceptions. In addition, even within an LER, transmitter power or field strength must fall below a separate regulator-set level for the band. Licensees may deploy any devices and provide any services that do not violate these rules.     

Emerging issues in white space regulation

The secondary use of vacant television channels (TV white spaces) and the reallocation of the digital dividend to provide wireless broadband services are in the final stages of implementation in some countries. Originally seen as a once in a generation opportunity to better allocate UHF spectrum, further digital dividends are now underway as regulators and industry strive to meet exponential increases in demand for mobile data services. Concurrent developments suggest that TV white spaces may be rapidly exploited by global networks with billions of supported devices. The potential for sub-optimal outcomes is identified if the prospect of further digital dividends is not taken into account as technical and regulatory arrangements are put in place to allow productive use of TV white spaces. The importance of considering the potential interaction between further digital dividends and the use of TV white spaces is discussed and technical and regulatory approaches to support optimal outcomes are identified.     

Aligning technology,business and regulatory scenarios for cognitive radio

The amount of wireless and mobile applications and devices is rapidly growing. This exponential growth might be hindered by a scarcity of suitable radio spectrum, a necessary but limited natural resource required for all wireless communications. Spectrum scarcity does not only slow down data growth, but may also disrupt existing communications. Cognitive radio may provide a solution to these issues, but although the concept seems promising, few products making use of CR have been brought to the market. This is due to significant uncertainties surrounding the appropriate economic scenario for CR, the regulatory framework and the technology enablers needed for such CR scenario. As business, regulatory and technical constraints are largely co-determined by each other, this paper proposes to align them, paving the road for the implementation of specific economic scenarios with appropriate regulation. First, from the business perspective, a taxonomy of possible economic scenarios for CR is proposed. Second, for each scenario a number of regulatory requirements – based on a European context – and characteristics are given. In doing so, it is argued that the economic scenarios are inherently distinct so that CR regulation should be customized for the type of scenario envisaged. Third, from the technology perspective, this article reviews the possible CR enablers, showing that spectrum sensing, CPC and geolocation database all have their strengths and weaknesses, and receive varying support from business and regulators. Based on the analysis it can be concluded that, although the introduction of CR does not seem problematic for the unlicensed scenario and the flexible operator scenario, more complex measures are required to enable CR to contribute to the implementation of spectrum pool—and spectrum market scenarios. It can also be concluded that, out of the three proposed alternatives, the geolocation database is the most likely candidate to be used for CR purposes. However, although this database is a clear favorite for applications within the TV White Spaces, spectrum sensing should not be discarded as a potential CR enabler for highly sensitive applications in high-density radio environments.     

Cognitive radio systems specific for IMT systems: Operator’s view and perspectives

Cognitive radio (CR) is still an emerging and disruptive communication technology which is expected to improve the overall efficiency of the spectrum use. It is envisaged that cognitive radio systems (CRS) could impact many aspects of communications and in particular could facilitate accommodation of the increasing amount of services and applications in wireless networks. Intensive research on CR aims at maximising the utilisation of the limited radio spectrum resource. There have been many advances in CR regarding the technology development aspects; however supplementary research on regulation, policy and market structure reforms in relation with application specific deployment is still required before any CR-based spectrum access could be implemented for specific broadband mobile applications. Indeed, mobile community is still at an early stage of understanding and development of CR capabilities and it is premature to envisage wide deployment of CRS without careful consideration of regulatory and business issues. Therefore, this paper gives a classification of CR-based network and application scenarios, and investigates the feasibility of them from a regulatory perspective at a global level (ITU-R). Main part of this paper presents the wireless network operator’s approach to CRS specific for International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) systems and proposes the radio environment map (REM) concept as a cognitive tool that increases environmental awareness in wireless network operator’s networks. Studies, which the authors performed internally and within the framework of a collaborative European project as well as within ITU-R yield the conclusion that, at shorter term, only intra-operator based CRS maximises the possibility for CR capabilities to be implemented.     

A TV whitespace ecosystem for licensed cognitive radio

The paper looks at the role of cognitive radio in TV whitespace and suggests that European and US policy makers have limited its exploitation because of a predominant focus on cognitive radio as a device that is primarily suited for unlicensed opportunistic spectrum access. The paper suggests that markets for pragmatically conceived cognitive radios can be safely exploited within the confines of licensed spectrum, rather than solely in the domain of unlicensed opportunistic scenarios. Both European and US policy perspectives are analysed as they pertain to both cognitive radios and the TV whitespace, identifying the contradictions and opportunities therein. The analysis shows that regulators have already formulated many of the policy tools necessary to create a coherent ecosystem for license-based exploitation of TV whitespace by cognitive radios and that there are opportunities for broadening the regulation of TV whitespace.     

Urban wireless traffic evolution: The role of new devices and the effect of policy

The emergence of new wireless technologies, such as the Internet of Things, allows digitalizing new and diverse urban activities. Thus, wireless traffic grows in volume and complexity, making prediction, investment planning, and regulation increasingly difficult. This article characterizes urban wireless traffic evolution, supporting operators to drive mobile network evolution and policymakers to increase national and local competitiveness. We propose a holistic method that widens previous research scope, including new devices and the effect of policy from multiple government levels. We provide an analytical formulation that combines existing complementary methods on traffic evolution research and diverse data sources. Results for a centric area of Helsinki during 2020–2030 indicate that daily volumes increase, albeit a surprisingly large part of the traffic continues to be generated by smartphones. Machine traffic gains importance, driven by surveillance video cameras and connected cars. While camera traffic is sensitive to law enforcement policies and data regulation, car traffic is less affected by transport electrification policy. High-priority traffic remains small, even under encouraging autonomous vehicle policies. Based on peak hour results, we suggest that 5G small cells might be needed around 2025, albeit the utilization of novel radio technology and additional mid-band spectrum could delay this need until 2029. We argue that mobile network operators inevitably need to cooperate in constructing a single, shared small cell network to mitigate the high deployment costs of massively deploying small cells. We also provide guidance to local and national policymakers for IoT-enabled competitive gains via the mitigation of five bottlenecks. For example, local monopolies for mmWave connectivity should be facilitated on space-limited urban furniture or risk an eventual capacity crunch, slowing down digitalization.     

Dynamic usage of narrowband spectrum

We examine the potential for expansion of the white space spectrum sharing model in the 400 MHz band. As opposed to UHF broadcast spectrum, which contains unassigned or idle segments known as white spaces, the 400 MHz band is characterised by intensive licence usage. However, productive spectrum usage does not guarantee allocative efficiency, which would require knowledge of the highest value service for each licence. 400 MHz frequencies are not priced on opportunity cost. It is therefore difficult to ascertain the economically efficient mix of services to deploy in the 400 MHz band. Drawing parallels with the high-economic value revealed and generated through the operations of unlicensed white space devices in UHF broadcast spectrum, we identify untapped 400 MHz spectrum capacity, which we refer to as narrowband spaces. Encouraging dynamic spectrum usage of narrowband spaces could, similarly to TV white space usage help realise the efficient allocation of the 400 MHz band. However, the narrowband nature of the 400 MHz licences and high licensing turnover imply a significantly different concept of dynamic spectrum access than that considered for TV Bands. The paper discusses regulatory implications and the type of services suited to exploit narrowband spaces.     

TV white spaces exploitation through a bicameral geo-location database

The exploitation of TV white spaces can meet the increasing demand for spectrum resources and create opportunities for deploying a variety of wireless services in a flexible manner. However, uncertainties from technologies, business models and regulatory policies hinder the take-off of TV white spaces exploitation. This paper proposes a bicameral (or two-chambered) geo-location database, which allows/supports both free and paid access to the TV white spaces: i.e., one chamber supports free access through opportunistic or geo-location database access; and the other chamber supports paid usage through secondary spectrum trading. Consequently, four technological scenarios for the acquisition of TV white spaces emerge, namely: sensing only, joint sensing and geo-location database access, geo-location database access only, and broker based secondary spectrum trading. An analysis of these scenarios is performed based on a theoretical framework for emerging technology evaluation while considering technological, business models and regulatory dimensions. The analyses show that free and paid access to TV white space complement each other; and that despite considerable infrastructure costs, the bicameral geo-location database is positioned to create viable TV white spaces exploitation value chains; hence have the most optimal technological, business and regulatory prospects.     

Spectrum sharing in the gray space

There has been considerable effort to let more wireless devices operate in white space spectrum, that is within frequency bands and geographic areas where no wireless devices are active. Making white space available is certainly useful, but there are other sharing opportunities as well, some of which have been obscured by dangerous misconceptions about the concept of unused spectrum. This paper discusses allowing more devices to operate safely in gray space spectrum, that is spectrum that is actively being used in that transmissions are underway—something many economic models assume is impossible. The paper focuses on primary–secondary sharing, so devices gaining access to spectrum operate on a secondary basis in a way that never causes harmful interference to primary systems. Examples of primary–secondary gray space sharing mechanisms are described in which devices are allowed to share spectrum with broadcasting, radar, and cellular systems. Quantitative analysis shows that it is technically possible to support significant communications among secondary devices in spectrum that is already heavily used by cellular or radar. However, gray space sharing generally causes primary and secondary systems to be more technically interdependent than white space sharing, so different policy and governance structures are needed. Secondary market rules can support gray space sharing in cases where there is a single primary spectrum user, such as a cellular carrier. In cases where technology is static, the regulator may be able to control access for secondary devices. However, in cases with multiple primary users and multiple secondary users of spectrum, as might be seen in bands with radar for example, a new kind of governance body will be needed to facilitate spectrum sharing.     

The Influence of Regulation and Disruptive Potential on Incumbents' Submarket Entry Decision and Success in the Context of a Network Industry

This paper uses the theoretical perspectives of disruptive innovation, network externalities, and regulation to study the submarket strategies of incumbent firms that operate in a regulated network industry. In this setting, the impact of potentially disruptive innovations might be different because of the tighter regulation of incumbent firms. By analyzing the entry and success patterns of incumbent mobile network operators (MNOs) in the public hotspot markets in 17 Western European countries, we focus on how regulation and network effects as well as disruption factors influence the incumbent firms' strategies. In doing so, this paper departs from prior research that has primarily focused on unregulated industries and combines contradicting explanations from disruptive innovation theory, the motivation/ability framework, regulation theory, as well as network effects to provide a comprehensive analysis on how incumbents behave in a regulated network industry that is being confronted with a potentially disruptive innovation. In particular, while disruptive innovation theory predicts that the incumbents' vast experience in an industry could cause them to avoid entering new submarkets created by potentially disruptive innovations, the desire to avoid regulation could encourage such submarket entry. Furthermore, in regulated network industries, incumbent firms might have a stronger motivation to enter new submarkets as the importance of single customers and high market shares could be substantially different. These contrasting insights are used to develop an integrative research model and to derive hypotheses on incumbents' submarket entry decision and success. Drawing on cross‐sectional, multicountry data of 62 MNOs that operate in 17 Western European countries, this study uses logit and tobit regressions to test the impact of disruption factors, regulation, and network externalities on the entry decision and success of incumbent firms. The results reveal that the incumbent MNOs are caught in an area of conflict between the regulated industry context and their international technology strategy. The findings suggest that the incumbent MNOs' motivation and ability to escape regulation positively influenced their submarket entry and success in the public hotspot market. Thus, the potentially disruptive scenario was successfully turned into a potentially sustaining one as the incumbent MNOs could enhance their presence in the mobile broadband market. The testing on a multicountry basis as well as the positive influence of ethnocentric technology strategies for public hotspots, which are devised in the headquarters' location and are then brought out internationally, shed new light on an industry that has typically been characterized by country‐by‐country decisions. These findings may also reveal challenges for future research on disruptive innovations in multinational industries and expose future challenges for regulative authorities and managers. This paper thereby adds to the theory of disruptive innovation as it includes the influence of regulation on incumbents in network industries. Additionally, this study expands on previous findings on the disruptive potential of wireless local area network technology by employing a multi‐country analysis in 17 Western European countries.     

The 3G transition: Changes in the US wireless industry

The transition of the wireless industry from second generation (2G) to third generation (3G) is more than a simple technology upgrade. The industry's service profile will move far beyond telephony and services will converge with the computing and content sectors. This will bring many more players into this already huge industry. Thus the transition to 3G needs to be regarded as a major economic transformation as it requires a major reconfiguration of the existing value networks. Standards have traditionally been essential in the success of wireless services and will play an increasingly critical role in the future.Due to the on-going transition, wireless standardization has changed considerably—reflecting changes in the configuration of the value network. While the number of major air-interface standards has been reduced to just two, the overall number of standards bodies has increased by almost an order of magnitude while the number and scope of interfaces being standardized has grown at a breathtaking pace. This growth reflects the need to support the industry's new coordination requirements at critical interfaces in the value network. At the same time, the importance of the traditional standards development organizations (SDOs) has diminished as more nimble industry consortia have taken over the main responsibilities for standardization. The major standardization battlegrounds have shifted up the protocol stack to the service enabler level. In addition, the manufacture of handsets and other mobile communication devices is transitioning to a more horizontal industry structure. These changes, along with changes in the way value is extracted from new services and their influence on the reconfiguration of the industry are discussed.     

On regulations for 5G: Micro licensing for locally operated networks

Future 5G networks aim at providing new high-quality wireless services to meet stringent and case-specific needs of various vertical sectors beyond traditional mobile broadband offerings. 5G is expected to disrupt the mobile communication business ecosystem and open the market to drastically new sharing based network operational models. 5G technical features of network slicing and small cell deployments in higher carrier frequencies will lower the investment barrier for new entrants to deploy local radio access networks and offer vertical specific services in specific areas and allow them lease the remaining required infrastructure on demand from mobile network operators (MNO) or infrastructure vendors. To realize the full vision of 5G to benefit the society and promote competition, innovation and emergence of new services when the 5G end-to-end network spans across different stakeholders administrative domains, the existing regulations governing the mobile communication business ecosystem are being refined. This paper provides a tutorial overview on how 5G innovations impact mobile communications and reviews the regulatory elements relevant to 5G development for locally deployed networks. This paper expands the recent micro licensing model for local spectrum authorization in future 5G systems and provides guidelines for the development of the key micro licensing elements. This local micro licensing model can open the mobile market by allowing different stakeholders to deploy local small cell networks with locally issued spectrum licenses ensuring pre-defined quality guarantees for the vertical sectors’ case specific needs.     

A dynamic policy license for flexible spectrum management

Electromagnetic spectrum for wireless communications is fully allocated by regulatory authorities, but this does not mean that it is fully utilized. Demand for greater capacity and new services requires new regulatory and technical models for spectrum sharing. This paper develops a regulatory model denoted the dynamic policy license. The dynamic policy license combines the assurances to licensees that come from holding a fixed license while maintaining regulatory flexibility. A dynamic policy license is similar to a traditional spectrum license that specifies a bandwidth, power, center frequency, location, and other parameters. However, one or more of these parameters is subject to change by the regulator over time. The allowed changes are restricted by the license to provide assurances and predictability to the licensee. The opportunities and challenges that this presents to both regulators and licensees is described. For instance, the dynamic policy license can be a regulatory tool for more aggressive spectrum sharing.     

Flexible spectrum management for mobile broadband services: How does it vary across advanced and emerging markets?

Demand for wireless data and Internet services are expected to grow exponentially, both in advanced and emerging markets in the near future. While advanced countries have often used centralized planning and coordination methodology to forecast and allocate the associated spectrum blocks to wireless operators for meeting the demand, it is often ad-hoc in emerging markets dictated by market forces. In this paper, Finland and India are taken to represent advanced and emerging markets, respectively. Different policy options and the policy environment in these two countries for spectrum management are explored. A causal model is constructed to represent the different variables that affect spectrum management practices and possible paths forward in these two extreme cases are highlighted. Using the causal model structure, it is hypothesized that (i) the matured markets such as Finland that practice centralized and harmonized spectrum planning are likely to continue their ex-ante policies and opt for the release of digital dividend spectrum and use of spectrally efficient technologies; (ii) the emerging market in India that is characterized by a market oriented ex-poste regulation is a good candidate to introduce secondary markets including flexible opportunistic spectrum access as exemplified by the wide spread adoption of multi-SIM handsets and the practice of national roaming by 3G service providers. Introductions of policies and regulations in these markets to break away from the extant paths are also highlighted.     

How America's fragmented approach to public safety wastes money and spectrum

Emergency responders such as firefighters, police, and paramedics depend on reliable and ubiquitous wireless communications. Failures in these communications systems can cost lives. Particularly since 9/11, there has been great concern in the US about the possibility of failures due to lack of interoperability, and failures due to a shortage of public safety spectrum. This paper shows how both of these and other serious problems are a logical consequence of America's fragmented approach to public safety, in which thousands of local agencies make independent decisions without a coherent strategy to unify or guide them. Because of this fragmented approach, public safety agencies build more infrastructure than they should, spend more tax-payer money than they should, and consume more scarce spectrum than they should, all for a system that is unnecessarily prone to interoperability failures. This paper also considers the most widely cited estimates of public safety's spectrum needs, which predict a serious shortage unless considerably more spectrum becomes available to public safety by 2010. This paper shows that estimates for the amount of spectrum needed in 2010 would be vastly lower if the US adopted an effective national strategy that included coordinated planning and modern technology. On the other hand, if the US retains today's fragmented approach, regions where coordination among local public safety agencies is particularly weak may need more spectrum than popular estimates would indicate, leading to an even greater shortage. Thus, the federal government should start playing a large role in setting the direction of public safety communications, rather than leaving this to many independent local governments.     

Evaluation of the opportunity cost of the spectrum: Application to the digital dividend

The transition to digital television transmission (DTT) creates an opportunity for revising the current allocation and use of the spectrum, and for enhancing its efficiency. The fairly large amount of spectrum that will be freed up in the analog TV switch-off is known as the digital dividend. Many EU countries have decided to partially allocate these frequencies, through market mechanisms, to mobile use, but a large fraction of the dividend is supposed to remain in the hands of broadcasters. An efficient management of the spectrum requires that the use of this resource should be supported through appropriate incentive policies. This paper presents a techno-analytical approach to evaluate the opportunity cost of using a spectrum portion within the digital dividends’ bandwidths, for example around 800-900 MHz, for both DVB-T and UMTS services, specifically addressing the extraordinary rise in the use of mobile broadband in the European context. The methodology is then applied to Italy to derive a baseline for administered prices reflecting the cost of spectrum use. Results obtained are then compared with existing evidences from other studies and Countries’ experiences.     

The phoneless in the broadband age: A pilot study in Massachusetts

Questions about universal service continue to evolve as information and communication technology advances, bringing new platforms, services, and business models. Concerns about exclusion remain, particularly in times of transition to new technologies and platforms. While the universal service literature is rich in econometric studies that indicate the drivers of household telephone penetration, without qualitative data directly from those households that experience phonelessness, we cannot understand the causes well enough to design effective policy. This research explores why people are phoneless in the current environment of increased platform and business model choices. Particular focus is placed on understanding the relationship between new technology, platforms and business models and phonelessness. Data is obtained from surveys completed by approximately 100 individuals in Massachusetts who are currently without any voice connection, either landline or mobile, or have been sometime in the past ten years. The survey includes questions about different platforms and communication services in order to learn how they have led to phonelessness. The results of the pilot study show that the vast majority of phoneless households do not choose to be phoneless. The study also shows that the most frequent causes of phonelessness in this population are unemployment and unpredictable bills. Many instances of unpredictable bills leading to phonelessness occur with wireless service or bundled services but are the result of business models for service provision rather than the platforms themselves. Prepaid wireless service is a market-based solution that helps households prevent phonelessness by reducing unpredictability. Universal service policy for voice and broadband can better reduce exclusion with greater attention to business models and practices versus technologies and platforms, and increased emphasis on prepaid service to reduce unpredictability.     

Transmitters and receivers' investment to avoid interference: Is there an optimal regime?

The management of interference has been, and still is, the main concern in spectrum policy. Historically, interference has been dealt with by heavy regulation under an administrative control regime. Over the last decades, a new approach has been put forward based on users' property rights, better able to cope with a rapidly changing technological environment. The issue of dealing with interference across bands, however, remains crucial: What obligations should be put on users so as to keep interference at a socially acceptable level? Also, given that some unwanted emissions are bound to occur, how can private parties be provided with the right incentives to invest in high-quality reception technology? This paper assesses how well different regulatory regimes can lead to efficient outcomes. It develops an economic model of spectrum interference and identifies the efficient solution. A regime where spectrum users have the power to enjoin intruding emissions beyond a predefined level (property rights protection) is compared with a regime where users are forced to bear with intruding emissions, but are entitled to economic compensation for the harm suffered (liability rules protection). The analysis suggests that different regimes may perform differently under different circumstances depending on the cause of interference and, critically, on whether the services are organised as an open- or a close-architecture system. This suggests that regulators should pay more attention to the specific features of the different bands, and that the appropriate spectrum management regime should be designed to recognise these differences.     

工业用户用电信息互动通信平台技术经济特性分析

分析了工业用户用电信息采集系统的现状,提出在新的电力市场改革和智能电网建设背景下,采用以太网无源光网络（EPON）技术组建工业园区用电信息互动通信平台的设想,并给出了相关技术经济特性分析。