The European Commission has called on telecoms regulators to support ‘wireless innovation’ by encouraging the sharing of radio spectrum across Europe.
Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission, described radio spectrum as “economic oxygen”. In a blog post, she said the EC’s aim was “ensuring that any kind of wireless device can work, wherever you travel in the EU.”
Full details of the official announcement are below.
Digital Agenda: Commission moves to foster wireless innovation through sharing of radio spectrum
The European Commission today unveiled plans to deal with the exponential growth in mobile and wireless data traffic by enabling wireless technologies, including broadband, to share the use of the radio spectrum.
With new technologies it is possible to share radio spectrum amongst several users – such as internet providers – or use the spectrum available between TV frequencies, for example, for other purposes. National spectrum regulation often does not reflect the new technical possibilities, leaving mobile and broadband users at risk of poor service as demand grows, and preventing a single market for investment in such communications markets.
A coordinated European approach to sharing spectrum will lead to greater mobile network capacity, cheaper wireless broadband, and new markets such as tradable secondary rights for a given spectrum allocation.
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