WiMAX Forum White Paper: Spectrum Opportunities Below 1 GHz

By the WiMAX Forum

This white paper provides an analysis of spectrum opportunities for WiMAX™ technologies in bands below 1 GHz. It describes the recent regulatory developments in the bands below 1 GHz, focusing especially on the upper part of Ultra High Frequency (UHF) 470 – 862 MHz band, i.e. in the sub-band 698 – 862 MHz which may become available to Mobile Service applications in the next years, typically between 2008 – 2012.

After a short description of the interest of the UHF band below 1 GHz in terms of implementation of the WiMAX™ technology, the document provides a description of the current regulatory situation of this band and of its recent evolutions:

• OFDMA TDD WMAN is now an IMT technology included in Recommendation ITU-R M.1457;
• At international level, the results of the WRC-07 (Geneva, 2007, Oct 22nd – Nov 16th) are presented and discussed;
• At regional or national levels, on-going processes in several regions or countries are described. These analyses concentrate on North American countries, CEPT countries, and some Asian countries, where active processes have been initiated and more information is currently available.

As a result of this review, the document focuses on the UHF band 698 – 862 MHz, including:

• The band 698 – 806 MHz which is already partly available for commercial applications in North America and has been designated for IMT applications in Region 2 (including CALA countries, except Brazil) and in some countries of Region 3, including in particular China, India, Japan, and Republic of Korea;
• The band 790 – 862 MHz which has been allocated where necessary to Mobile Service and identified for IMT at WRC-07 in Region 1 (Europe, Africa, Middle-East) and in Region 3 (Asia-Pacific area).

This would not prevent the possibility to explore other opportunities on a case-by-case basis including, for instance, other IMT spectrum below 1 GHz, TV-spectrum white areas (use of the so-called interleaved spectrum) or an expanded band resulting from local situations.

In addition WiMAX technology could provide solutions for vertical markets like for instance Public Safety and military applications. In several countries the Digital Dividend may also results in providing new spectrum resources for these applications in the UHF band.