The European Commission said it plans to add 120 megahertz of new spectrum near the 2 GHz band in support of next-generation mobile broadband services. The move requires member countries to provide access to the new spectrum by July 2014.
The decision looks to unify spectrum usage in the 1920-1980 MHz, 2110-2170 MHz paired bands that have to this point been set aside to support 3G services. Current members of the EC include Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Taking a dig at its neighbors across the pond, the EC noted the move will bolster wireless spectrum assets set aside for mobile broadband services to near 1,000 megahertz, which it said was about twice as much as has been provided in the United States. The United States has said it wants to set aside up to 500 megahertz of new spectrum by 2020 to support mobile broadband services, though in the short term government agencies are looking at a more manageable 115 megahertz by 2015.
The EC said it was also looking at reallocating unpaired spectrum in the 1900-1920 MHz and 2010-2025 bands that are currently set aside for 3G services but have been largely unused for next-generation services.
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