Key ideas concerning neutral spectrum licensing are outlined based on the paper “Technology Neutrality: Interaction between International Mobile Telecommunication and National Spectrum Management Policies,” by M. El-Moghazi, J. Whalley, and J. Irvine, originally published in the Proceedings of the 26th European Regional Conference of the International Telecommunications Society (ITS), http://hdl.handle.net/10419/127135, Madrid, Spain, June 2015

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Technology Neutral Radio Spectrum Licensing
Ronald Romero Reyes

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Spectrum Licensing

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Spectrum Licensing
According to the GSMA public policy position [1]:
1. Spectrum management should ensure maximum economic benefit from the use of its spectrum resources
2. Spectrum rights should be assigned to the services and operators that can generate the greatest economic
benefit to society
3. Restrictive licensing conditions limit the ability of operators to fully utilise spectrum resources and risk
delaying investment in new services. Spectrum policy should remove service and technology restrictions in
existing rights and allow for technology and service neutrality
4. Spectrum should be identified, allocated and licensed in alignment with internationally harmonized mobile
spectrum bands to enable international economies of scale, reduce cross-border interference and facilitate
international services
[1] GSMA Public Policy Position, “Spectrum Licensing,” https://www.gsma.com/spectrum/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/GSMA-Policy-Position-on-Spectrum-Licensing.pdf, 2013.
From (3) and (4) we raise the following question:
Do the IMT standards - as defined by the ITU-R - deter national regulators from implementing
technology neutral radio spectrum licensing?
To answer the question let us have a look at results on the matter currently published in the literature

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Influence of IMT International Standards on
National Spectrum Management Policies

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Influence of IMT Standards on National Policies
The paper Technology Neutrality: Interaction between International Mobile Telecommunication and
National Spectrum Management Policies [2] studies the following issues:
1. Influence of IMT standardisation on technology selection and technology neutrality on the national level
2. Influence of IMT standardisation on perspectives regarding mobile technology generation definition
3. Influence of IMT standardisation on discrimination between mobile technology generations
4. Influence of IMT spectrum identification on technology neutrality
[2] M. El-Moghazi, J. Whalley, and J. Irvine, “Technology Neutrality: Interaction between International Mobile Telecommunication and National Spectrum Management Policies,” in
Proceedings of the 26th European Regional Conference of the International Telecommunications Society (ITS), http://hdl.handle.net/10419/127135, Madrid, Spain, June 2015.
The authors in [2] conduct interviews with national regulators, mobile industry representatives and ITU-R
study groups so as to tackle the four research issues. As a result, cognitive maps were proposed as
graphical representations that explain the influence of IMT standards on national policies.
In the following, the cognitive maps - as adapted from [2] - together with the main findings are summarized.
The maps depict the different IMT factors that influence national spectrum policies concerning technology
neutrality.

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Influence of IMT Standards on National Policies
1a. Influence of IMT standardisation on technology selection on the national level
Relevant views:
• Most regulators prefer to embrace IMT technologies given that they are internationally accepted
• However, some regulators do not give priority to IMT standards as they deem their markets can benefit
from non-IMT technologies with lowest costs. Also they may prefer to follow regional regulations instead
of ITU-R recommendations

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Influence of IMT Standards on National Policies
1b. Influence of IMT standardisation on technology neutrality on the national level
There are conflicting views:
• Positive views: IMT standards may encourage technology neutrality given the availability of a diversified
family of IMT technologies - see factors 27, 28, 29, 43, 44, 45, 110, 111 and 113 in the diagram
• Negative views: however, IMT standards may also be against neutrality and may discourage regulators
form being neutral for the reasons expounded in factors 37, 38, 34, 42 in the diagram

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Influence of IMT Standards on National Policies
2. Influence of IMT standardisation on perspectives regarding mobile technology generation definition
Relevant views:
• Several actions were taken in the ITU-R to diminish any influence from the IMT standards on the
technology generations terms used in the market (see factors 51, 50, 52, 53 in the diagram)
• There is a view that both IMT and commercial definitions are developed in parallel (factor 54) and that
both definitions are influenced by the industry (see factor 57)

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Influence of IMT Standards on National Policies
3. Influence of IMT standardisation on discrimination between mobile technology generations
Relevant views :
• Regulators differentiate between technology
generations due to issues related to market
circumstances (factors 66, 73, 74, 77)
• Regulators may discriminate between
technology generations in order to acquire
higher license fees (factor 76)
• Regarding the influence of the IMT standards,
the ITU-R is not involved in the discussion
related to the differentiation between 3G and
4G (factor 69). The ITU-R is not involved in
national matters (factor 75) and national
regulators usually refer to the common practice
rather than the ITU-R (factor 80)

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Influence of IMT Standards on National Policies
4. Influence of IMT spectrum identification on technology neutrality
Relevant views :
• Spectrum identification has a positive impact on regulator decision towards selecting technologies from
the IMT family. However, the extent of such influence depends on the country. Moreover, IMT spectrum
identification has elements of flexibility and restriction on the concept of technology neutrality
• Having spectrum identified to IMT may largely imply using the spectrum for IMT, which may discourage
regulators to apply technology neutrality and to limit the band use to IMT only instead (see factors 106,
105, 96, 107, 108, 13)

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Conclusions

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Conclusions
According to [3]:
Technology and service neutrality: “Restricting the use of spectrum to particular technologies and services
exacerbates scarcity of spectrum and prevents access to new services. Removing restrictions that limit the
use of spectrum to particular services or technologies enables a country to maximize the benefits from its
spectrum”
Based on this statement and on the findings published in the paper “Technology Neutrality: Interaction
between International Mobile Telecommunication and National Spectrum Management Policies” we
conclude that:
• The IMT standards do not preclude the adoption of technology neutral spectrum licenses. Instead, the
IMT standards promote compatibility and inter-operability amongst a variety of mobile systems. This
encourages neutrality with respect to the family of IMT technologies
• On the contrary, the adoption of technologies is driven by the market forces and the evolution of services.
Therefore, since the ITU-R does not identify spectrum for a particular technology (but rather for radio
communication services), then regulators are not bounded to the allocation of technology-dependent
licences
• Within this context, national regulators have the flexibility to promote technology neutrality by assigning
licences at reasonable prices
[3] GSMA, “Best practice in mobile spectrum licensing,” https://www.gsma.com/spectrum/best-practice-mobile-spectrum-licensing/, September 2016.