The long tail of national regulation on ‘vertical’ private 5G spectrum continues to wag, in a slightly inconsistent manner. Swiss telecoms regulator BAKOM has announced it will open the 3400-3500 MHz (3.4-3.5 GHz) band for enterprises to deploy private 5G networks from the start of next year (January 1, 2024). The frequency allocation is lower than the 3.7-3.8 GHz band that has been made available to enterprises in Germany, as well as the 3.8-4.2 GHz band that has been ring-fenced in the UK – and which the wider European market appears to be converging on.
It is also lower than the shared 3.55-3.7 GHz ‘CBRS’ band in the US, being utilised for similar ends. Swiss enterprise licences will be granted on a multi-year basis for localised 10 MHz chunks of the band, for CHF48 per MHz (CHF480 per channel) per year – according to the standard Swiss licence fees for land mobile radio “experiments and demonstrations”, RCR Wireless understands; the exact duration of the licences, and the terms of their provision, are still to be finalised. The provision, as always, is geared to drive the local industrial sector, in the name of Industry 4.0.
A statement (translated from German), said: “Local mobile communications applications can be implemented in a clearly defined area (within a company or enterprise / industrial site). Such campus networks are used exclusively for internal communication between machines and/or people and work with low transmission powers. Campus networks are not available for long-range radio applications, such as controlling self-driving vehicles or for coverage in urban areas… Usage is reserved for the licence holder [which] is not permitted to provide services to third parties.”
It went on: “Particularly in the industrial sector, campus networks can contribute to the automation and optimization of internal company processes, for example in the machine-assisted production of industrial goods. However, there is also a need for such private 5G networks in… logistics, retail, healthcare, [and] airports… Compared to WLAN networks, campus networks offer various advantages: these include, among other things, high reliability, but also the possibility of to achieve very short response times in industrial processes.”
BAKOM explained away the move to elect for the 3.4-3.5 GHz band over the 3.8-4.2 GHz band. It said: “European regulatory body CEPT is carrying out studies on the extent to which it is technically and regulatorily possible to operate [private 5G] in the 3.8-4.2 GHz range in the future. Since other radio applications are already in operation here, as well as in the neighbouring frequency bands, a possible coexistence between these and campus networks must be analysed. The outcome of the studies is uncertain and results are not expected before the end of 2024.”
As such, the long tail has some length left in it. BAKOM has elected for the 3.4-3.5 GHz range, as mandated generally across Europe for 5G. It went on: “Individual European regulatory authorities doubt the harmonisation of frequency resources for [private 5G] will be successful. They assume that the 3.8-4.2 GHz range will only be possible for use inside buildings [and] have therefore decided at national level to release frequencies that have already been harmonised for 5G and that can also be used outside of buildings. Switzerland is taking this route.”
BAKOM is in the midst of migrating applications in the 3.4-3.5 MHz frequency range, such as wireless video signal transmissions, to other areas. This process will be completed by the end of 2023, when the band will be made available for enterprises to lease spectrum for their own 5G projects.
