MILAN (WiMAX Day). This week the Ministry of Communications in Italy published its guidelines for the auction of 3.5 GHz WiMAX spectrum. Unlike recent auctions of similar spectrum in Germany and France, the Italian Ministry intends to allow the spectrum to be used for the provision of “mobile” services. However, to what extent the mobility will be permitted is not clear.

The allowance of mobility was first addressed in the consultation documents prepared for the auction earlier this year. The Ministry referred to the decision of the European Commission from March 30, 2007 (published April 20, 2007 in RSCOM07-06 Final) that spectrum in the range 3400 ~ 3800 MHz should be designated broadband wireless access spectrum (BWA) and can be used in “flexible usage modes” which include Fixed Wireless Access, Nomadic Wireless Access and Mobile Wireless Access.

The EC decision was adopted October 5, 2007 and its decision clearly stated that member states of the ECC should allow the use of 3400 ~ 3800 MHz spectrum “for fixed, nomadic and mobile electronic communications networks,” and such spectrum must be made available before July 1, 2008.

These decisions were adopted by the telecommunications authority AGCom in its decision 644/06/CONS to allow mobility based on IEEE 802.16e standards that includes the effective management of “hand-offs” and provides the “possibility of switching the terminal by a user from one base station to another without the loss of connection.”

However, there is inconsistency between the original AGCom consultation documents, and the final AGCom Decision document (Delibera n. 209/07/CONS), the later of which underlies the formal rules to the auction.

In particular, this document states that “some modes of use and some network architectures could be subjected to some form of restrictions in terms of a frequencies flexibility usage and technical parameters, in particular the mobile service could be subjected to more restrictive technical rules.”

While the auction rules released by the Ministry do not specifically restrict the licenses for use with mobility, it also does not specifically permit mobile use either. Thus it is taken for granted that mobility will be permitted, based on the assertion by AGCom that the auction will follow the definition of BWA as set out by the EC.

However, according to Stefano Quintarelli, President of Eximia Srl in Milan, as the AGCom document states that mobile use may be subject to restrictions, it begs the question about when and under what conditions such restrictions may be imposed.

This a particularly important question for auction participants. On the one hand, it appears that the Ministry will permit the spectrum to be used for mobile applications, yet “possibly” subject to unknown restrictions.

According to Guido Tripaldi, president of the Voipex Consortium in Italy, the prospect of “mobility” will have considerable impact on the value of the WiMAX licenses in Italy.

Yet if auction bidders do not have any clarity on this issue of mobility, Tripaldi added, it will be difficult for them to understand what they are bidding on, and more importantly, how to value their bids.

Neither the Ministry nor AGCom were able to provide comment on this matter, except to say that the auction rules have been published as final, and will not be revised.

The issue of mobility for this spectrum is extremely important to bidders, especially in the wake of the decision last week by the ITU to classify WiMAX as part of the IMT-2000 family of mobile technologies.

Another related issue to be decided during the course of the World Radiocommunications Conference in Geneva this month will be the identification of 3400 ~ 3600 MHz frequencies for use with IMT-2000 technologies. If this classification is made, based on the recommendations of the ITU and numerous regulators, including the EC, then WiMAX in its incarnation as a mobile wireless technology should be compatible for mobile use with such spectrum.