How Dynamic Spectrum Sharing Can Increase Digital Inclusion

The Dynamic Spectrum Alliance is pleased to announce that the annual Global Summit will be co-hosted by Agencia Nacional del Espectro (ANE) the Colombian national spectrum regulator, in Bogota, Colombia on April 26-28, 2016.

Following on from previous successes in Asia (Manila, Philippines) and Africa (Accra, Ghana), the world’s largest conference on wireless spectrum sharing is heading to Latin America where regulators, industry representatives, and academics from around the world will discuss how new dynamic spectrum sharing technologies and regulatory models are being used to increase digital inclusion and address the massive growth of wireless data.

Deployment of dynamic spectrum access technologies remains low in the Latin America region, and it is for this reason that ANE and the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance are keen to jointly kick-start a conversation on how regulators and government officials from Latin America and from around the world can innovatively increase spectrum supply and availability. Latin American countries such as Brazil, Jamaica, and Uruguay are already host to small pilot projects leveraging spectrum sharing technologies in unassigned and otherwise unused UHF broadcast frequencies (the “TV White Spaces”). Academic and research institutions across the region are experimenting with other spectrum sharing technologies, such as License Assisted Access in the 5 GHz bands. These projects will help inform governments and regulators as they consider how to enable dynamic spectrum sharing in their countries.

The same challenges facing Latin America, such as universal access to broadband, addressing wireless data consumption, and enabling the Internet of Things, apply to regulators and operators all over the world and the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance has already achieved great success in advocating and promoting dynamic spectrum access across the globe. By joining with ANE to host the 2016 Global Summit, the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance believes that, with the backing of other regulatory bodies, this could be replicated in Latin America; creating new opportunities for education, healthcare, commerce and the delivery of government services.

Dr. Martha Suárez Peñaloza, Acting Director General of ANE, said; “We are glad to co-host the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance 2016 Global Summit in Bogota, Colombia. It is important to start a serious discussion in the region about the dynamic spectrum access, its advantages and drawbacks, especially to consider if this could help overcome key challenges such as the demand for wireless data traffic in remote regions. Spectrum efficiency has been the main concern for ANE and with the increase of the Internet of Things and as we look to a world of 5G, it is extremely important that the region considers policies to allow for the flexible use of the spectrum in some particular cases. This is what we hope to successfully address through the agenda of the Summit.”

The 2016 Summit is set to have new features, with the first change being an expansion of the event from two days to three days. The Summit will see the addition of seminars and workshops to allow for greater depth of focus in discussions between regulators to study how spectrum regimes could be implemented successfully in the region. Sessions will cover the latest technological advances, including a more focused look at the relationship between IoT and spectrum policy, and the role that dynamic spectrum access technologies will play in the future of 5G.

“First off, we would like to thank ANE for co-hosting the 2016 Global Summit in Colombia. The Summit will be the catalyst for the exciting future offered by dynamic spectrum access technologies for the Latin America region and will encourage discussions towards creating positive and effective regulatory guidelines and standards for dynamic spectrum access”, added Prof. H Nwana, Executive Director of the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance. “We must enable dynamic spectrum access on a global scale to complement existing 3GPP, WiFi and emerging 5G technologies. A holistic approach encompassing shared and exclusive, licensed and unlicensed spectrum access approaches across a variety of frequencies is the only way governments and regulators can address their most pressing accessibility and affordability broadband challenges. Whilst there is much progress happening in regions such as Asia and Africa, the Latin America region also has the opportunity to see tremendous benefits.”

ANE is in charge of spectrum allocation in Colombia, as well as planning, management, surveillance and control of this resource. ANE provides technical advice to the Colombian ICT Ministry for the frequency assignment processes (including IMT auctions and TV stations), economic strategies for the efficient management of Spectrum and promotion of knowledge about this valuable resource to the Colombian society. ANE additionally chairs the spectrum management sub-group in the CITEL PCCII (www.citel.oas.org), and is the first Latin American regulatory body to co-host a Dynamic Spectrum Alliance Global Summit.

The DSA’s membership is continuing to grow rapidly, with members from across the world, including major industry players like Microsoft, Google, British Sky Broadcasting Ltd, Facebook, InterDigital, MediaTek, Murata, AirTies, Aruba Networks, ATDI, Broadcom, and Saankhya Labs, as well as Dynamic Spectrum Access startups, such as Aviacomm, Adaptrum, 6Harmonics, and SpectraLink Wireless, and research institutions such as NICT Japan and CSIR South Africa. This represents the software, hardware, networking and media sectors, as well as non-profit and public sector groups.