Open up new spectrum bands for backhaul, RABC urges

Industry Canada should prioritize four bands for mid-range backhaul use to support mobile wireless carriers’ increasing shortage of backhaul spectrum in urban areas, the Radio Advisory Board of Canada (RABC) said. In regulatory documents filed with the Industry Department this week, the RABC said growth in demand for mobile data services warrants the department allocating additional spectrum in four bands for backhaul, which supports mobile networks by allowing carriers to move traffic between cell sites and links. The group recommended that the department allocate two bands, the 13 GHz and 23 GHz bands, for “medium haul applications,” which can carry signals up to 1,000 kilometres, and another two bands, the 31.8-33.4 GHz and 40.5-43.5 GHz bands, for “two-way fixed services,” such as communications between multiple cell towers. “Mobile broadband is not only important for on-the-go internet access, and social networks, but it also provides access to essential services such as e-government, banking as well as health and educational applications,” said the RABC, a technical advisory group whose members include broadcasters, wireless carriers and the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA), among others. “Without sufficient backhaul spectrum, the future of these everyday services that Canadians have come to rely on could be significantly affected in highly congested areas,” the group said. The RABC’s comments responded to a consultation the department launched in December that asked industry players to consider what additional bands could be used for backhaul services and whether the additional capacity is needed. The department said there could be a need for more medium-range backhaul spectrum to accommodate “already moderate to heavy usage” related to mobile data traffic. Lower frequency bands, such as 10 GHz, have a longer range to carry traffic than higher bands, such as the 40 GHz band. RABC general manager, Roger Poirier, said in a telephone interview Thursday there is a “critical shortage” of backhaul spectrum in the frequency bands between 10 GHz and 24 GHz—the ideal bands for medium range backhaul between cities. He said the shortage was the result of an “ever increasing” use of mobile broadband networks and the re-allocation of some backhaul spectrum for other purposes. “Some of that spectrum was taken away and is no longer available for that purpose because the military needed it, and some of it was reallocated for satellite,” he said. “So in that area, from 10 to 24 , is where there’s a really chronic shortage … This is really the area of spectrum that’s most desirable.” In its December consultation, Industry Canada asked industry to look at nine spectrum bands and whether they would be suitable for backhaul, including four bands below 10 GHz and three above 24 GHz. While all of those bands “could be used effectively,” Poirier said, several are already being used extensively for other purposes, while others do not yet have an equipment ecosystem that could be easily integrated with the carriers’ networks. The RABC said Industry Canada should launch consultations on plans to allocate the four bands it identified for backhaul “as soon as possible.” Some of the bands, it said, are designated for other uses and the department may need to take action to make them available for backhaul. Parts of the 13 GHz band are licensed to “very high capacity microwave” services that carry TV signals, and the department may need to impose a moratorium on any new systems in the band. The group said Industry Canada should also update the wireless industry on the availability of unassigned frequency blocks in the 24 GHz and 38 GHz bands and allow companies to license unused spectrum in those blocks. In a separate submission to Industry Canada, incumbent wireless carrier Rogers Communications Inc. said the government should also reduce the fees it charges telecom carriers to licence spectrum for backhaul use. Rogers said the fee structure charges operators based on how much traffic they pass over their spectrum, not on how much spectrum they have access to, which “penalises” companies that maximize their channel capacity “and rewards those that use the spectrum inefficiently.” CWTA president Bernard Lord said in a telephone interview Wednesday that wireless carriers spent more than $180 million on spectrum licences last year, and that reducing the fees is important to development in the wireless sector. Charging by usage is like having a highways strategy that taxes asphalt, he said. “The asphalt for the next wave is spectrum,” Lord said. —With reporting by Nicholas Kyonka at nkyonka@thewirerport.caand editing by Simon Doyle at sdoyle@thewirereport.ca

Open up new spectrum bands for backhaul, RABC urges

News | May 2, 2013

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