700MHz band: future home to worldwide mobile broadband standard
If you've been losing sleep over not knowing precisely what was going to happen to all that spectrum space that will be freed up when the imminent analog-to-digital cutover takes place, your insomnia is about to be (at least partially) cured. The US of A apparently pushed hard for a worldwide consensus on spectrum use -- suggesting that a common approach was more reasonable than each nation choosing separate frequencies for next-generation services -- and sure enough, it ended up getting exactly what it wanted. Apparently, the 700MHz band will now be reserved for a mobile broadband standard accessible throughout much of the globe, including most of North America, Central America, South America, Europe, China, India, South Korea and Japan. Of note, Europe was able to land a concession that enables it to offer up "about half of the bandwidth available for mobile services in their region" compared to what is offered elsewhere, but the agreement definitely makes the forthcoming auction that much more interesting.
[Via RCRNews, image courtesy of toddemslie]
