Need for and societal value of the frequency bands 3.8-4.2 GHz and 26 GHz

In this study, we analyse the various possibilities and needs for the use of radio frequencies in the 3.8 - 4.2 GHz and 26 GHz bands by businesses, and the economic and societal implications thereof. The report does not consider the potential use of these bands for government tasks, such as public order and safety.

Results

The needs can be divided into three categories:

• Satellite communication. Ground stations receive signals from satellites for a wide range of applications, with end users often located outside the Netherlands.
• Non-public mobile communication. Professional users communicate for (sometimes business- or mission-critical) applications, often based on 5G. There are various reasons for these users to prefer (partially) their own infrastructure over connectivity based on existing public networks, such as the degree of control over the lifecycle.
• Public mobile communication. Mobile operators can deploy spectrum in the 3.8 – 4.2 GHz band to increase the capacity of their networks based on current sites.

There is destination scarcity: the existing use for satellite communication overlaps with (at least) the need for frequency space for non-public networks. This destination scarcity only occurs within the 'exclusion zones' around satellite ground stations, which would cover a large part of the Netherlands. Outside the exclusion zones, there is allocation scarcity (among the other applications). Particularly in densely populated areas and in multi-use-multi-user environments, this is expected to occur. In some of these areas, a regional network is a possible solution to efficiently share the scarce spectrum in the band among different users.