Importance of Mobile Spectrum – 1-6 GHz Report

Importance of Mobile Spectrum

It is clear, with the number of spectrum awards expected over the coming years that the importance of spectrum between 1 GHz and 6 GHz is going  to continue to grow, both for LTE and, increasingly, for 5G services.

This report provides a snapshot of the global status of national usage of spectrum from 1 GHz up to 6 GHz for LTE and 5G services. It is part of a series of reports which separately also cover spectrum bands below 1 GHz and spectrum above 6 GHz.

This report refl ects a market that is in constant fl ux and feedback is greatly appreciated to keep it current. Please send comments and information to research@gsacom.com.

Key statistics:

790 operators are operating LTE networks, in 229 countries* worldwide.

Of those, 679 operators in 197 countries hold licences enabling operation of LTE networks using spectrum from 1 GHz to 6 GHz

14,778 LTE devices support one or more bands between 1 GHz and 6 GHz (out of 15,524 LTE devices in GSA’s GAMBoD database)

88 operators have been identifi ed as holding licences enabling launch of 5G networks using spectrum between 1 GHz and 6 GHz

38 countries have announced formal (date-specifi ed) plans for allocating frequencies between 1 GHz and 6 GHz between now and end-2021.

42 announced devices explicitly support one or more of the 5G spectrum bands between 1 GHz and 6 GHz (though note that details of spectrum support is patchy for pre-commercial devices). Twenty-three of those devices are known to be commercially available.

LTE at bands between 1 GHz and 6 GHz

Several key spectrum bands between 1 GHz and 6 GHz are used for LTE. Figure 1 shows how many companies have been licensed worldwide in each of the key bands.

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