As WRC-15 begins, broadcasters hope current DTT frequencies will emerge intact

By Barry Flynn, Contributing Editor

As the World Radiocommunication Conference 2015 (WRC-15) gets underway in Geneva, European terrestrial broadcasters’ eyes will be on the outcome of item 1.1 on the agenda, ‘Spectrum for wireless and mobile broadband’.

This item will examine a list of ‘candidate bands’ to be considered for mobile broadband use by mobile operators, and includes the 470-694/698 MHz band, which is currently occupied by terrestrial broadcasting in Europe.

However, it is considered unlikely that this chunk of spectrum could suffer the same fate as the band immediately above it – the so-called ‘700MHz’ band – which was the subject of a surprise raid by the mobile sector through African delegations at the previous conference.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) points out that “all but one of the regional regulatory organizations has made proposals to WRC-15 for “No Change” to this frequency band. More than 630 broadcasting organisations from all over the world endorse this position.”

The EBU argues that “future mobile data traffic growth can be addressed without compromising the future of DTT, which remains a highly popular medium – particularly as recent data shows that the majority of mobile content is consumed using fixed networks and Wi-Fi.”

Spectrum expert Andrew Stirling, managing director of the Larkhill Consultancy, believes that, in effect, a “regulatory deal” has been done to allow 700MHz to be used for mobile broadband, in exchange for the broadcasters being told “you get to keep all the lower frequencies for a substantial amount of time, let’s say up to 2030. I don’t know that any dates have been written in stone, but at least it takes any further discussions, in principle, out of the picture. […] I guess that gives broadcasters something to work with, some security, even though they’re not delighted about 700 being cleared.”

The next item on the WRC-125 agenda, entitled ‘Use of the 700MHz band for mobile broadband’, is where that deal should be rubber-stamped. “The current thing to be agreed, or finalized, at this WRC is what they call making the 700MHz band co-primary,” explains Stirling, “which means that it can equally be used for mobile broadband, as it can be for broadcasting. It isn’t that the WRC is deciding to clear broadcasting out, it is just saying that internationally, it is recognized that there can be mobile broadband in there, as well as broadcasting.”

Despite this, several European territories have already taken the decision to offer the band wholesale to the mobile sector. One of the earliest is France, which will begin auctioning the 700MHz frequencies off to its four mobile network operators on November 16^th this year.

Meanwhile, Stirling suggests it would be unwise to assume that a decision to leave the 470-694/698 MHz band intact is a fait accompli. “I think it’s always worth watching the Africans, because they’ve clearly got incentives to […] get spectrum that’s unused into a place where it could be generating economic value for them,” he comments. “They don’t have the extensive broadcast networks in [that band] that would be putting the other point of view, and trying to hold things back. I think there’s always a possibility that they could try to get some more spectrum, there.”

Although the Europe delegation is putting forward a united front on this issue at WRC-15, Stirling notes that not every member country necessarily subscribes to the notion that the 470-694/698 MHz band should remain inviolate, particularly where only a small minority of their populations receive digital TV via a rooftop aerial. “I think the Germans have started to contemplate, ‘what about clearing that band?’. The Finnish have as well,” he suggests.

“I think there has been a – I don’t know whether you’d call it an entente cordiale […] in order to protect European broadcasting. They’re pretty powerful voices, the EBU, and of course the policy makers who sit behind that, and still see these national broadcasters as a prime policy vehicle. […] I think, even though some countries would have had the opportunity to change over, there’s been a common European desire to try not to let that happen.”