Ofcom
Advisory Services
The Situation
Ofcom was considering the release of the GSM 1800 and DEC guard band spectrum to operators for use in mobile or license-exempt operations.
NERA's Role
Ofcom asked NERA to carry out a cost-benefit analysis of the use of the guard band spectrum in three scenarios:
- To make the spectrum available, on a national or regional basis, either to the existing GSM operators or to new entrants wishing to provide public mobile telecommunications services
- To make the spectrum available for short-range, low power use on a licence-exempt basis
- To retain the guard band and leave the paired band unassigned, in order to assist migration of GSM 1800 to future IMT-2000 use and to facilitate testing and development licensing
The Result
NERA's report set out a specification of the three scenarios for the purposes of economic impact modeling, and a discussion of the treatment of key modeling issues. We considered:
- the relevant time period;
- how the producer and consumer benefits should be measured; and
- the stylized examples to be modeled under the second scenario.
