900 MHz Land mobile spectrum opens up in Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe region

Industry Canada’s decision to release 10 MHz of previously held 900 MHz spectrum in Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe region likely won’t be a boon to wireless Internet service providers, says one of the most important Canadian vendors of gear operating in the band. Two executives at WaveRider Communications Inc. say that since the region is one of the most wired in the country, it is unlikely there will significant opportunity for additional fixed wireless Internet services. "From pure IP broadband connection, I don’t believe you’re going to find too many square feet in that whole area that doesn’t (already) have very low cost broadband available to them," WaveRider’s president and CEO Bruce Sinclair tells Report on Wireless. Charles Brown, WaveRider’s executive VP, notes that a majority of the markets within the Golden Horseshoe are already served by both cable and DSL from three and four competitors. "So from an Internet provision standpoint, it’s not all that attractive. I think it’s going to be more attractive in finding some interesting niche opportunities like offering low-cost safety, security equipment, or offering low-cost SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) applications to municipalities, those sorts of things as opposed to a broadband-type service," he tells Report on Wireless. The company hasn’t ruled out partnership opportunities to modify its equipment to operate in these two sets of frequencies. Says Sinclair: "We’d love to have a partner that said ‘hey we’ve got some applications, we need some gear that can operate in the spectrum, has some cost and maybe even some mobility characteristics that we could meet that would help make it quite unique from traditional wired environment.’" Announced late last year, Industry Canada reopened for licensing unassigned channels in the 896-901 MHz and 935-940 MHz frequencies, spectrum that had previously been kept in reserve exclusively to meet the need of public safety systems. In the mid-1990s these two frequency ranges experienced significant licensing activity and a 1998 review revealed that the two bands were nearing depletion in the Golden Horseshoe Area (GHA) of Toronto. Demand for the spectrum decreased since the moratorium on licensing services other than public safety was instituted, and after three years a study of future public safety spectrum requirements, conducted in 2001, it was shown that few public safety applications for spectrum had been submitted and that their needs were largely being met by other spectrum. As a result, the department concluded that it was no longer necessary to hold a 10 MHz block of 900 MHz spectrum in reserve for public safety users. In addition, the department notes that more 900 MHz spectrum has become available due to spectrum recovery associated with failed deployments and the return of temporarily used bandwidth. According to Industry Canada, there are currently 51 unassigned channels in these two particular blocks of spectrum in the Golden Horseshoe surrounding the Toronto region. In the notice, the department indicated that it would withhold 10 channels in this band. "There continues to be demand and applications for 900 MHz land mobile spectrum for use during short-term events. To accommodate these needs within the GHA, the Department will continue to sub-allocate 10 channels in the 900 MHz land mobile spectrum. These channels will not be available for multi-year licensing," reads the notice.

900 MHz Land mobile spectrum opens up in Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe region

News | January 10, 2005

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