OTTAWA – When it comes to licensing the 28GHz band, Canada’s wireless operators generally agree with Industry Canada’s proposed framework, documents submitted to the department via its call for comments reveal.
Telus, however, is concerned about the first-come, first-served approach advocated by the department in its consultation. Given the rapid growth of mobile networks and mobile data services, the need for longer-term backhaul network planning is paramount and a FCFS process may act as a barrier, the company states in its submission.
“Telus is of the view that the FCFS model needs to be ‘tweaked’ to allow network operators to reserve sufficient backhaul facilities when commencing build-out or expansion of their HSPA or LTE networks,” Ed Prior, director of regulatory affairs, writes.
The company acknowledges that Industry Canada requires an immediate implementation of the spectrum upon licensing, but says this can be satisfied by a network plan with a committed date. “This would provide the department with assurance that the spectrum would be used and introduce the critical business certainty required by the network operator upon commencement of a major network expansion or build,” states Telus.
With respect to the licence fee structure, the carriers argue for a different approach than was set out in the consultation paper where Industry Canada proposed a fee that would be applied on a per MHz per population basis. The operators and the Radio Advisory Board of Canada (RABC) say this approach creates confusion. The challenge in using this type of formula to set licence fees for point-to-point systems makes determining the population applicable to a specific licence difficult.
“Clearly, tying fixed point-to-point fees to population is unworkable and would not be appropriate,” the RABC tells Industry Canada. It “believes that the department should implement the same fee structure that is used in the 38 GHz band, i.e. on a spectrum grid-cell basis, using the same grid-cell map as that used for 38 GHz.”
Telus and Rogers Communications agree with the RABC’s position, opposing the department’s proposed fee structure. TeraGo Networks is the outlier, noting that it supports Industry Canada’s approach as it’s the same method used in determining the licence fees for the 24 GHz and 38 GHz bands.
As previously reported by Cartt.ca, key to Industry Canada’s framework is to ensure bandwidth is acquired by operators that need and intend to use it in the near term, rather than let it sit fallow. For example, spectrum will be licensed on an “as needed” basis and it must be put into use within six months of receiving the licence. In addition, the department ruled out allowing licensees to acquire multiple blocks covering large portions of a province.
While these provisions were generally supported by parties responding to the consultation, Mike Kedar’s Mobilexchange Spectrum Inc. believes some of these elements may in fact harm his business. First, the licensing on an as needed basis may hamper operators in the business of managing spectrum for others.
“Therefore, if this condition is adopted, it should be interpreted to accommodate demand expected to be generated by the customers of proposed licensees based on reasonable forecasts provided by the proposed licensees,” he tells Industry Canada.
Secondly, the inability to acquire licences covering a large geographic area would run counter to the policy governing the 24 GHz and 38 GHz bands.
“A carrier would not be able to integrate the use of 28 GHz spectrum into its network in order to serve demand throughout its operating territory or engage in the kind of long-term network planning that is facilitated by licensing based on geographic tiers. Therefore, such a condition would substantially increase the costs and complexity of microwave backhaul and fixed wireless deployments,” the company states in its submission.
The consultation on the 28 GHz band comes after the wireless operators lost access to backhaul spectrum last year. In two separate decisions, Industry Canada reallocated parts of the 11 GHz and 15 GHz bands for other services.
