Partner Article

Zinwave CEO comments on EU spectrum proposal

With the European Union proposing that TV broadcasters auction off their 700MHz spectrum in order to facilitate the growing demand for mobile services, Scott Willis, CEO of Zinwave – a global provider of wideband distributed network solutions for in-building wireless and IP coverage – believes this is a good move, but operators need to find ways to make the best use of the additional spectrum.

“The European Union has proposed that EU countries release 700MHz of spectrum by 2020 in order to accommodate the growing data demand for LTE services over MIMO networks,” said Willis. “This is often referred to as ‘spectrum farming,’ where spectrum is taken from one place – in this case DTT services – and given to operators for broadband use. This initiative is certainly a good step as data-hungry mobile devices increasingly permeate our everyday lives. Indeed, we are well on the road to 5G, which requires a significant amount more spectrum and bandwidth than many operators are currently equipped to provide. Spectrum is scarce and it’s important that it is shared carefully and operators make the most out of their radio waves.

Willis continued: “In order to take full advantage of this additional spectrum, operators will need to take a smart approach. A good start is small cell architecture, such as Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS), which has the ability to facilitate the refarming of different frequencies. Indeed, a wideband DAS uses any combination of services and frequencies, which means that operators are able to provide multi-service coverage, without worrying about expensive re-cabling fit-outs or installing multiple coverage solutions, which will each have limited spectrum of application capabilities. Ultimately, operators need to prepare for these new frequencies now and put in place tools that will maximise the spectrum – a vital part of meeting consumers’ future needs.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Zinwave .