EU will make broadcasters give up spectrum to broadband

European broadcasters are emerging from a period of uncertainty to discover they will have to cede more primary spectrum to mobile broadband operators, but are being offered some concessions over reallocation.

The European Commission, the European Union’s executive body, has been dithering over spectrum policy ever since the surprise decision taken at the World Radio Spectrum Conference (WRC) 2012 to force a second digital dividend out of broadcasters in the spectral region covering Europe, the Middle East and Africa. A group of Middle Eastern and African countries pushed through a commitment to make more spectrum available for mobile broadband in the band around 800MHz in addition to the amount granted in the so called first digital dividend in 2008. At that time, there were variations between member states, but generally 20 percent to 25 percent of the UHF spectrum liberated through analogue switch off was given over to mobile broadband, which was more than the original spectrum allocated for European GSM cellular services.