Progress of low power GSM licensing initiatives.
During the last few years, special spectrum licensing arrangements have been operating in the UK and The Netherlands governing "low power GSM". In both cases, the previously unused guard band between DECT and the GSM 1800 band has been selected for this purpose. Transmit power of base stations is limited to 200mW with mast heights limited to 10 metres. The approaches to the licensing in the UK and the Netherlands are quite different.
In the UK, 12 low power GSM licenses were issued by sealed bid auction. At the time of the auction, many bidders were unsure of how they would use the license should they succeed in their application and a mixture of operators and small companies acquired the licenses. Over the last few years only a small minority of the license holders have used their licenses commercially and these have been the smaller companies who had specific applications in mind for the license at the time of the auction. The remainder of the holders have sat on their licenses since they were not obliged to deploy a network under the conditions of the license.
In the Netherlands, the regulator took a different approach and opened up the spectrum for anyone to use for low power GSM applications. The only requirement was to register their usage of spectrum at individual locations to aid with frequency planning between the spectrum users. This has resulted in a vibrant new market in the Netherlands with no barriers imposed on new entrants promoting competition and innovation.
Private GSM systems have now emerged in The Netherlands as front runners for delivering rich campus communications solutions. Where DECT, pager and trunk radio systems were the previous site communications preference, private GSM can replace all these functions using a single device and with the added bonus of an EDGE data service. Private GSM users can guarantee service levels since they control their own base stations addressing one of the major weaknesses of public GSM in these markets.
With other countries in Europe considering following these low power GSM licensing initiatives, it is clear that the Dutch model has been the more successful in driving innovation. The UK model has not allowed the market to evolve with new innovators locked out by the more rigid licensing scheme while many of the existing license holders do not use their licenses at all. Lessons can be learned from this experience and applied by other licensing authorities.
RAEMIS provides the perfect solution for low power GSM markets. With its seamless integration with all major PABXs and additional capability to integrate users with the public GSM network, RAEMIS truly makes it possible to use just one device for all communications.