Wireless Spectrum: Introduction, Working, Allocation, and Management

Do you want to be that early bird that makes most of the prospects provided by the Internet of Things (IoT)? Well, knowing and fully understanding the engineering behind IoT can be helpful when assessing solutions and picking the best IoT business partner.

While doing so, it’s important to remember that at heart, IoT is a wireless technology, a crucial factor of an IoT application’s performance.

This Selectra article will introduce our readers to the wireless spectrum, its relevant and recent developments, what goes behind spectrum management, and the developments of 5G in India.

What is Wireless Spectrum, and How Does it Work?

The wireless spectrum is made up of invisible airwaves (electromagnetic radiation) and frequency bands. Every nation has its own wireless spectra ranging from 20 kHz (low frequency) to 300 GHz (high frequency).

These signals enable us to make voice calls, tag our friends on social media platforms, book an Uber, navigate to a destination, and do everything else from our mobiles.

The national body of a nation regulates the wireless spectrum frequencies that are used in communication. These regulations specify which frequency ranges can be used by whom and for what intent.

Did you know the factChannel frequency variations are complex because of the mixed characteristics of the radio propagation derived from natural and man-made factors.

Each part of a wireless frequency spectrum has a different characteristic than the other. Yes, you read that right! For instance, when compared with higher frequency transmissions, low-frequency transmissions own the properties to retain signal strength over longer distances. However, this retention comes at the cost of less data being transmitted.

Did you know fact: The sweet spot for most modern data communication ranges between 6 GHz and 300 MHz.

Concerning wireless communication, Selectra thinks of wireless spectrum in three (3) major categories

1. Low-band Spectrum (under 3 GHz) travels longer distances with minimal signal interference.
2. Mid-band Spectrum (ranging between 3 and 24 GHz) blends the properties of both low- as well as high-band spectrums and offers a fusion of coverage and capacity.
3. High-band Spectrum (above 24 GHz) travels much shorter distances than low-band spectrum. However, it provides fast speeds and high data capacity.

Spectrum Allocation in Wireless Communication

The affluence of wireless technology made divisions in spectrum allocation. For example, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) divided the planet into three (3) regions that influence wireless signal propagation:

Region 1: Africa, Europe, Northern Asia, and parts of the Middle East

Region 2: The Americas, Hawaii, and the Caribbean

Region 3: Asia, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, Australia, and New Zealand

What Goes Behind Wireless Spectrum Management?

To unleash what goes behind spectrum management, it is essential first to know some basic (and universal) elements of spectrum management:

1. Like in the real estate sector, the wireless spectrum has fixed and finite resources at its disposal. Only a specific range of radio frequencies exist, and once allotted to someone, its usage becomes restricted to others.
2. The variation in each of the spectrum’s performance features makes some of them more valuable against others. For instance, the 1000 to 2500 MHz range is treasured by telecom operators because this frequency band range promises good speed (without fighting signal interferences) and can transmit meaningful data amounts.

Wireless Spectrum Management in India

In India, the Union government owns all the publicly available assets (including airwaves) within the country’s geographical boundaries.

With the continuous rise in internet and mobile phone users, the need to provide more space for the signals has never been as high as in 2021.

Therefore, to sell these public assets to private players (businesses/companies) who are willing to lay the necessary infrastructure to transport these waves from one point to another, the Indian Central Government, through the Department of Telecommunications, auctions these airwaves from time to time.

All the purchased airwaves carry an expiry date (generally after 20 years), after which the ownership rights collapse.

5G in India

5G communications support outstandingly faster mobile internet speeds and lower latencies than previous generations (2G/3G/4G).

From transforming healthcare in this pandemic, connecting vehicles to building ultrasmart cities, and providing fiber-over-the-air, 5G is nowhere but at the heart of the future of communications.

This generation is also vital for preserving the future of the most popular OTT applications by guaranteeing that its growing usage can be continued.

India’s 5G auctions are likely to be pushed to the Q1 of 2022, with the DoT currently prioritizing network stability amid the COVID-19 pandemic and awaiting critical decisions on spectrum pricing and availability.

However, unlike with 3G and 4G auctions, where private companies explored the technology after the Indian government auctioned the airwaves, the DoT allotted 5G trial spectrum in the 700 MHz, 3.5 GHz, and 26 GHz bands, thus, paving the way for India’s most prominent telecom players, namely, Jio, Airtel, and Vi, to partner with (non-Chinese) network vendors and develop country-relevant use cases on the next-gen fast wireless broadband technology.

Did you know the factThe Indian government netted almost Rs. 78,000 Cr. from the sale of 4G airwaves in March, of which about Rs. 22,000 Cr. was received upfront before the close of the previous financial year.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) earmarked the only spectrum in the 3.3 - 3.6 GHz bands for 5G services.

TRAI has pegged the base price of 5G airwaves at Rs. 492 Cr. a unit that Indian telcos are finding too high. They have requested the Indian government reduce the base price.

Not to forget that the telecom industry executives expect the spectrum sale to take place in Jan-Mar’22!

Conclusion

We hope this article did full justice to your reading time. We put in our best endeavors to cover all the relevant and crucial elements concerning the wireless spectrum. We’ll be back with more interesting articles soon.