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Study explains why closing some Freeview channels is good for mobile reception

hle13

ULTIMATE Member
Scientists from the University of Surrey have delivered a paper explaining why with the majority of the country (70%) only watching 12 channels on Freeview including BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to name a few, it might be beneficial for the random channels that only a few actually watch to move to online only and use the freed up spectrum to improve mobile coverage especially in rural areas.

They go on to say that 10Mhz of the aforementioned 600Mhz could be sold for more than 2.5 Billion Pounds!

 
Who ends up paying for that 2.5 billion?

No doubt it won't be sold as a complete unit so to speak but broken up into smaller biddable items with the likes of BT/EE, VMO2 and VodaThree putting in bids with it maybe being used for mmwave 5G?

@Denco1 or @NinjaAverage probably know better on how it would happen no doubt?
 
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No doubt it won't be sold as a complete unit so to speak but broken up into smaller biddable items with the likes of BT/EE, VMO2 and VodaThree putting in bids with it maybe being used for mmwave 5G?

@Denco1 or @NinjaAverage probably know better on how it would happen no doubt?
There have been some discussions at WRC but 600MHz isn't yet earmarked for 4/5G in Europe.

Due to this Ofcom haven't published any draft strategy, but if things move along then it will likely follow the 700MHz auction with some changes if the UK only has 3 MNOs at that point.

600MHz isn't mmWave.
 
There have been some discussions at WRC but 600MHz isn't yet earmarked for 4/5G in Europe.

Due to this Ofcom haven't published any draft strategy, but if things move along then it will likely follow the 700MHz auction with some changes if the UK only has 3 MNOs at that point.

600MHz isn't mmWave.

So is 600Mhz just your average 5G than? Eg 5G that anyone can get which doesn't depend on device or plan?
 
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No doubt it won't be sold as a complete unit so to speak but broken up into smaller biddable items with the likes of BT/EE, VMO2 and VodaThree putting in bids with it maybe being used for mmwave 5G?

@Denco1 or @NinjaAverage probably know better on how it would happen no doubt?
I think it needs to be just handed out for free, telcos get their assigned slice of it, when they submit viable plans that assure the infrastructure will be built so they not just sitting on it, and if it isnt built they lose the slice.

We moan about the cost of mobile services, but they need to claw the money back somehow, and seems balmy to pay billions for something barely anyone will be using.
 

Says it all about Broken Britain don't it?

Especially since when compared with a mix of countries from across all parts of Europe, we are usually at the bottom of any chart.
 
Broken Britain Indeed.

My Lebara sim gave me between 120-150Mbps in the USA (t-mobile) and in London I get between 20-30 Mbps. Its their / Voda's home turf ! Even better 5G in Portugal.

As for 600 Mhz or mmWave, we can keep dreaming.It is unthought of as yet, when they cant even cope with existing 4G or 5G proper.

MNOs are just not investing and moving with times. Hence the stagnation and tinkering at the edges.

Just imagine: If Three started investing in 5G masts over the past few years that they have been SITTING ON the huge spectrum holdings they have, they could have swept the market and be leaders by now in 5G deployments, leaving behind all others. People woould have happily paid a premium, only if they improved their game. Ditto allothers.

Yet were content milking the punters for all it was worth. A criminal waste in corporate terms.

Broken Britain, indeed, right for a rip off.
 
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So is 600Mhz just your average 5G than? Eg 5G that anyone can get which doesn't depend on device or plan?
Still needs device support (n71 in the States), but the crucial things (very, very roughly- don't want to overcomplicate) that determine the 'speed' of the 5G are the bandwidth of the carrier and the number of 'layers' it supports. At 600MHz as the carrier frequency there's not much room for high bandwidth (typically 10-20MHz) and it's hard to do many layers at that low a frequency, so the maximum speed is somewhere in the realm of kinda 100-200mbps - basically the same as 4G.

The benefits of 5G come not really from the underlying technology (although it does help - kinda 10-20% better than 4G in ideal conditions), but from it enabling access to higher carrier frequencies (like n78 - 3.5GHz) where lots of layers are available (for complicated reasons but mostly because the wavelength is shorter so you can get adequate antenna element spacing) and where there's lots of bandwidth (100MHz+). mmWave takes it up to something like 26-28/39GHz for the carrier frequency, where there's tons of bandwidth (up to 800MHz typically) - not many layers though for other reasons. You could achieve that (roughly) with 4G's underlying tech too if the support for those frequencies were there - but slightly less efficiently. 5G in Britain was a shift in both technology and the available frequencies at the same time, which together provided the big boost (where available and built properly).

The trade off of that is much shorter cell range from the antenna to the phone/device. If a network is sufficiently profitable that they can build enough antennas to cover an area with the higher frequency then that means you've got a really high top speed and lots of capacity on the network - so you kinda get into the 'true' 5G experience. Hard to do though - you might need 20 antennas to achieve a good 5G experience at 3.5GHz or 5 to achieve an ok experience with 600MHz. It's all about balance of what's needed in a certain location given user density and demand, what's available to an operator and the economics underpinning it all.
 
Broken Britain Indeed.

My Lebara sim gave me between 120-150Mbps in the USA (t-mobile) and in London I get between 20-30 Mbps. Its their / Voda's home turf ! Even better 5G in Portugal.

As for 600 Mhz or mmWave, we can keep dreaming.It is unthought of as yet, when they cant even cope with existing 4G or 5G proper.

MNOs are just not investing and moving with times. Hence the stagnation and tinkering at the edges.

Just imagine: If Three started investing in 5G masts over the past few years that they have been SITTING ON the huge spectrum holdings they have, they could have swept the market and be leaders by now in 5G deployments, leaving behind all others. People woould have happily paid a premium, only if they improved their game. Ditto allothers.

Yet were content milking the punters for all it was worth. A criminal waste in corporate terms.

Broken Britain, indeed, right for a rip off.
Exactly this, mobile service is terrible in the UK...

Only one of the UK operators has a proper IPv6 implementation, yet in India all of them do. France, Germany, USA and other countries also have full IPv6 on all networks.
Vodafone UK have no IPv6 at all, and yet their networks in Germany, India, Portugal, UAE and other countries do. Why do they leave their UK network so far behind the networks they deploy in other countries?

In many areas of London i can't get 5G, and in some places can barely get 4G - yet in Thailand I managed to have 5G service everywhere in Bangkok and even on the road traveling to Hua Hin.
 
Scientists from the University of Surrey have delivered a paper explaining why with the majority of the country (70%) only watching 12 channels on Freeview including BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to name a few, it might be beneficial for the random channels that only a few actually watch to move to online only and use the freed up spectrum to improve mobile coverage especially in rural areas.
It would be more sensible to shut down 5 of the 6 Freeview multiplexes, keep one for the channels that people watch, and get rid of all the porn/shopping/etc.

With proper band planning that could still free up the vast majority of the spectrum, whilst not locking out people who cannot make use of IPTV.
 
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