Chris Cheeseman, BT Group FCCG interim report recommendations-bt-issue 1 Presented at the Cluster 1/4 UK Spectrum Policy Forum meeting More information is available http://www.techuk.org/about/uk-spectrum-policy-forum

1. Future Communication Challenges Group
A BT perspective on the Interim Report of January 2017
Chris Cheeseman
Spectrum Strategy Director
BT Group
Issue 1
13 Feb 2017

2. © British Telecommunications plc
Future Communications Challenges Group (FCCG)
The FCCG is a group, comprising academia, industry and independent advisors,
tasked by DCMS to provide advice to Government on what the UK should do to
maximise its chance to be a world leader in the development of 5G.
Name Affiliation
Naomi Climer the IET
John Baird RCUK/EPSRC
Mark Beach University of Bristol
Howard Benn Samsung
Tommy Charles NCSC
Mischa Dohler Kings College London
Peter Haigh NCSC
Simon Hicks DCMS
Stephen Howard HSBC
Luke Ibbetson Vodafone
Nigel Jefferies Huawei/WWRF
Name Affiliation
Dritan Kaleshi Digital Catapult
Stephen Pattison ARM
Stuart Revell RTACS
Simon Saunders Independent
Mark Shepherd NTAC
Rahim Tafazolli 5GIC
Steve Unger OFCOM
Alison Vincent CISCO
Cheng-xiang Wang Heriot Watt
Tim Whitley BT
David Wong SMMT

3. © British Telecommunications plc
FCCG Interim Report Recommendations
1. Government Funding - R&D and Test Beds etc
2: International development and Test Beds
3: Procurement and Digital first implementation
4. Policy
5. Transport and Smart City trials / demonstrators
6. Policies for investment and deployment
7. Spectrum strategy and deployment
8. Spectrum and Test Beds

4. © British Telecommunications plc
Regulatory, planning and other key challenges
Recommendation 6
Government should assess whether current plans to simplify or remove
requirements for base station deployment planning permission go far enough to
support effective 5G deployment. Progress should be accelerated in opening up
access to public owned buildings and infrastructure and should consider specific
rights to access public infrastructure (e.g. similar to those proposed by ARCEP in
France - see Spectrum section 5). Policy should focus on ensuring that access to
backhaul AND site locations are open, streamlined and more cost-effective. This is
inhibiting investment roll out today.

5. © British Telecommunications plc
Spectrum
Recommendation 7
Government should, as part of its planned strategy for 2017, consider with Ofcom
how relevant spectrum can be brought into use to enable early and rapid
deployment of 5G in the UK. This should be consistent with European
harmonisation, including 700MHz and 3.4-3.8GHz and support the identification
of new globally harmonised spectrum above 24GHz at WRC-19. Explore potential
to access 3.8-4.2GHz range on a shared basis as an extension to adjacent 3.4-
3.8GHz spectrum and promote this in Europe. Longer term strategies for WRC and
UK Spectrum needs, should be agreed with the UK Spectrum Policy Forum.

6. © British Telecommunications plc
Spectrum
Recommendation 8
Ofcom should make available on request spectrum for test beds and trials which
has the potential to lead to early deployment and longer term commercialisation.
Spectrum recommended for test/trials is follows: Low 700MHz, Mid 3.4 to 4.2
GHz and appropriate High frequency spectrum in line with European RSPG
recommendations and Global opportunities for exploitation.

7. © British Telecommunications plc
BT’s perspectives on the recommendations
1. The FCCG report is a welcome contribution to the 5G debate in the UK, as is
the helpful recognition of the role to be played by the UK SPF.
2. Many of the recommendations concern funding, trials, procurement policies,
international work and standards; we generally support the FCCG proposals.
3. The spectrum and regulatory recommendations are in line with ongoing
efforts within the SPF and could be addressed in the planned update of the
SPF’s recent 5G spectrum report.
4. Ofcom has already scheduled auctions of spectrum that has been identified as
potentially suitable for future 5G (e.g. 3.4GHz, 700MHz); the further efforts to
make available 3.6-3.8GHz are also a helpful development.
5. Permanent licences in the 3.8-4.2GHz range, facilitating guaranteed quality,
should be explored along with the potential more dynamic access methods
that are mentioned in the FCCG report.

8. © British Telecommunications plc
BT’s perspectives on the recommendations (cont’d)
6. The need to simplify and reduce the costs of planning, and the need to reduce
the cost of new sites is indeed helpful in the context of existing networks, as
well as future 5G deployments.
– It will be important to avoid excessive costs of spectrum and other inputs (e.g. many
new sites) associated with deployment of future mobile networks.
7. We agree that availability of spectrum for trials in low (sub-1GHz), mid (e.g.
3.x GHz) and high (>24GHz) bands is important.
8. We welcome efforts to identify global bands for future mmWave component
of 5G. The 26GHz band identified by RSPG and supported by Ofcom is a
promising candidate, as is the 32GHz band that is also prioritised by RSPG.
9. Ofcom needs to set out clear plans for how 26GHz is to be made available, on
a national basis even if it may be most useful in specific locations.