Regulators Gather at the DSA Global Summit 2017 to Discuss Opportunities Dynamic Spectrum Access Creates to Move From a Place of Spectrum Scarcity to one of Spectrum Abundance

Cape Town, South Africa, 11 May 2017: Regulators representing four different countries from North America, South America and Asia took part in the Regulator Leadership Summit today during day two of the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance (DSA) Global Summit 2017 in Cape Town, South Africa. One key message became clear – enabling greater use of unlicensed or lightly licensed spectrum enables innovation and growth, as well as creating new solutions for long standing problems such as narrowing the digital divide.

The panel, including representatives from Agencia Nacional del Espectro (ANE), Colombia; the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), USA; Agencia Nacional de Telecomunicacoes (ANATEL), Brazil and the Korea Radio Promotion Association (RAPA), Korea, addressed the issue of how dynamic spectrum sharing can help to solve the connectivity gap that keeps four billion people from participating fully in the digital economy.

“Optimization of the use of a scarce resource like spectrum requires the implementation of a new spectrum management framework,” said Dr. Agostinho Linhares, Manager of Spectrum, Orbit and Broadcasting Division, ANATEL. “Spectrum sharing is a way forward to improve technical and economic efficiency, and dynamic spectrum access can bring benefits to users, the economy and society, once it permits to serve more users in the same spectrum range, protecting incumbent services.”

Dynamic spectrum sharing also raises new issues for regulators regarding spectrum rights and interference. Different approaches to protecting incumbent services while driving for more efficient use of spectrum were discussed, as well as the regulatory differences with unlicensed and lightly licensed spectrum in a dynamic environment from the traditional unlicensed model.

The regulator session built on the momentum from the first full day of the Summit, which saw 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT) take centre stage in discussions amongst panellists and remained recurring themes throughout the day.

This included a panel titled ‘Wi-Fi for the 5G World,’ which looked at how new demands for greater Wi-Fi capacity has resulted in the need for more innovative spectrum access approaches aimed at improving spectrum efficiency and access, most notably through spectrum sharing. Panellists explored what the future of Wi-Fi will look like and what those capabilities will include. Commenting during the panel session, Haiyun Tang, CEO of Adaptrum Inc. commented: “Adaptrum embraces a broader definition of 5G which encompasses a vision of universal access.”

New spectrum requirements were at the heart of the discussion during a panel on ‘Enabling IoT through Dynamic Access Technologies.’ With the addition of billions of new devices and data sources the IoT will bring, the panel discussed which bands of spectrum will be required and how dynamic access to spectrum can play a key role in building the network of the future. Use cases from Africa were also presented, including in areas such as healthcare.