Pro-Broadband Ofcom Begins Review of UK Satellite Radio Spectrum Use

The United Kingdom’s telecoms regulator has today signalled the start of yet another strategic review, which this time will examine the radio spectrum use of space-based science and satellite communication services. Ofcom’s review could affect the future availability of frequencies for 5G and other broadband technologies.

At this stage the review merely consists of a Call for Input, which is seeking feedback from the various industry players in order to better understand how related radio spectrum frequencies could be more efficiently used in the future. Satellites are typically used for everything from TV to broadband, emergency services, navigation (GPS etc.), scientific research and various other things.

Ofcom states that changing spectrum requirements’ could be driven by an increasing demand for consumer satellite broadband, the desire for greater resolution in space science imaging data or by catering for a wider array of public sector needs.

Obviously our focus here is more on the broadband side, particularly with both the EU and UK governments looking to increasingly utilise Satellite as a universal solution for delivering superfast Internet connectivity. It’s already deemed a quick-fix for basic broadband, but catering for even faster connectivity is much tougher given the tricky capacity limits (here). Equally there’s always the possibility that demand for certain Satellite services might decline.

Ofcom also has to consider the need for more spectrum to improve Mobile Broadband (3G, 4G) connectivity, particularly with future 5G (due to arrive around 2020) services looking to harness significantly higher frequency spectrum bands (i.e. above 6GHz). Ofcom recently identified a range of frequencies’ for this between 6GHz and 100GHz (here).

By comparison modern Ka-band Satellite broadband spacecraft, such as Eutelsat’s KA-SAT or Avanti’s HYLAS 1, tend to harness spectrum between the 26.5-40GHz range and Ku-band’s neighbouring 12-18GHz. In particular KA-SAT is one of the biggest around and operates 82 spotbeams, each of which can harness a 237MHz wide transponder allowing a data bit rate throughput of 475Mbit/s per spot (the spacecraft’s total capacity is around 90Gbps).

Ofcom’s Hopes for More Efficient Use of Satellite Spectrum

• Improvements to satellite antenna beam focusing technologies. These would enable a satellite to use smaller beams so that frequency bands can be re-used through geographical discrimination, thereby increasing the capacity of the satellite (for example the use of high throughput satellites);

• New transmitter and receiver technologies and standards that could enable better use of spectrum. These include innovative and more spectrally efficient waveforms, better compression techniques and techniques to filter out unwanted signals;

• Increasing the efficiency by which satellite networks share spectrum resources with other users (e.g. terrestrial applications);

• Changes to satellite network parameters, such as the minimum diameter of the transmitting earth station or limits on the power flux density radiated towards other satellites, that could reduce the orbital separation between GSO satellites;

• Greater utilisation of existing available orbital slots through better co-ordination between satellite networks. This may lead to a higher proportion of actual satellites deployed compared to the total number of satellites filed with the ITU, some of which may be just “paper-satellites”.

The regulators consultation will therefore seek to establish which Satellite applications could need more spectrum in the future and equally where they might be able to extract some for use by mobile operators or other services. The scope and complexity of this consideration means that Ofcom’s consultation will run until 13th August 2015.