7 ms·

Distributed, community cellular networks will be highly viable with open/public spectrum.

• neeels 7y ago
  The lack of open public spectrum is a clear mistake of the governing authorities. To run a GSM+3G+LTE network for the annual CCC congress, we have to ask commercial operators for ARFCNs to use, every year all over again, and every year it is unclear what the response will be, often up to very near the build up of the event. If we had a publicly usable spectrum for 2G,3G,4G (and 5G?) here in Germany, so much more innovation and free/open infrastructure projects would happen in mobile communication. Network coverage holes are high up on the news these days, just imagine if locals were allowed to help themselves and not rely on profit-only oriented commercial operators...
  • g_p 7y ago
    Germany's new "campus network" spectrum regime is the first step towards this. It isn't true free access for everyone, but it makes approx 90 MHz of usable mobile spectrum in the ~3.5 GHz band available. The Netherlands has had around 5 MHz of DECT guardband spectrum available for private use, which is also useful. The UK has announced a new way to "share" access to 3.3 MHz of DECT guardband (plus 10 MHz of 2.3 GHz, and any unused mobile operator spectrum). Coverage blackspots are definitely a problem, but with these moves, maybe we can see some initiatives like these helping? The biggest challenge is likely in getting incumbent operators (paying billions for spectrum) to work with people willing to build these kinds of networks - until that happens adoption may struggle, and it is hard to onboard users and create good business models. Spectrum was definitely a barrier but in rural areas in northern Europe, hopefully this will be less of an issue going forward.
  • ta999999171 7y ago
    It's not a mistake...