UK Spectrum Policy Forum Publishes Report on the Use of 694-960 MHz in the UHF Band

The UK Spectrum Policy Forum (SPF) has published a new report outlining long-term spectrum policy recommendations at the national and European levels of the 694-960 MHz UHF band. Commissioned by SPF, SF Telecom UK's future-oriented research (checking the practicality, feasibility and impact of defragmenting the band) shows that it is in line with the promised benefits of using higher frequency bands and future technological developments (eg 5G) The overall capacity benefit of defragmentation will be small.

The report determined that re-planning the 694-960 MHz band would impose considerable cost burdens on mobile network operators as mobile network operators had to upgrade each base station in their network to increase capacity slightly.

The report recommends that the UK government and Ofcom should support the WRC23 agenda item on the basis of WRC19, which will examine how UHF 470-960 MHz will be used and how the band will realize value after 2030.