HONG KONG (WiMAX Day). Global telecom executives and regulators descended upon Hong Kong this week for the annual ITU conference, and a major topic of discussion has been spectrum management, and the future place of WiMAX within global regulatory regimes.

The emergence of wireless technology, and WiMAX in particular, has forced significant debate over spectrum use and regulation, especially in Europe. It seems now that some regulators will finally support more competitive methods of spectrum allocation.

Businesses should determine standards
In a keynote speech at the conference yesterday, Viviane Reding, a Member of the European Commission responsible for Information Society and Media, stated that regulators should no longer be the main force behind telecom standards.

In her speech, Reding drew particular attention to the broadband market in Europe, where incumbent telcos resist competition. She found that the “most significant factor enabling broadband growth is the existence of alternative infrastructures.” Moreover, regulations that protect dominant players in the EU will be phased out because “competition and open markets drive investment and innovation,” Reding said. “Monopolies don’t.”

As the global market for telecommunications has become very complex, Reding told conference delegates that “We know the choice of the wrong standard could lock our economies into a long period of underperformance, while market led solutions have consistently provided a much better environment for technology selection.”

For broadband regulation, Reding did not indicate any particular standard or technology that should be adopted, but rather, she said “I think it should be left to businesses to find the business models that attract consumers to opt for the services they like.”

In contrast to the successful growth of the GSM standard which had government support, Reding added “today, the picture is now much more complex: more sophisticated technologies, more markets, more international competition. It is much more difficult for governments to make a viable case for choosing one particular standard.”

Opportunity a lifetime
European countries have some of the most restrictive regulatory environments for radio spectrum, and its scarcity has proven difficult for new technologies, however this may soon change.

Commissioner Reding related her views on how spectrum must be managed more effectively. “We are seeing a massive increase in economic potential of radio spectrum. At the same time, we are developing technologies that will free-up spectrum that is currently occupied…. This could be a very large win for development, and we should not squander the opportunity by making the wrong choices.”

The availability of new technology will force better spectrum management and allow prime frequencies to be made available. Reding noted that “the way we manage the allocation of spectrum has to change… we should get out of the present rigid command-and-control system and move to a flexible approach based on market principles.”

Leading the way for changes in spectrum management is wireless, which “provides the best hope we have to bridge the digital divide…. The development of services such as mobile broadband and WiMAX offer scaleable solutions for true broadband access.”

However, according to Reding, for WiMAX to realise its full potential, the political barriers that exist today must be swept away. There must be “flexibility in spectrum allocation,” yet at the moment this is not possible because “the barriers are bureaucratic not technical.”