Government frees up more spectrum
Public sector spectrum will be released by the Government to enable more bandwidth for industry.


The Government today announced plans to release publicly-owned spectrum for industry to take advantage of.
The proposal will see 500MHz of spectrum freed up over the next 10 years so it can be sold or leased to businesses, the department for media, culture and sport confirmed.
"This is a long-term project to ensure industry is able to meet the growing demand for services that need spectrum," said communications minister Ed Vaizey.
"The use of smartphones and mobile broadband is set to increase rapidly. Releasing more spectrum over the next decade will be essential if industry is to meet that growing demand."
The department claimed the Ministry of Defence had already found two bands it was able to release to industry 2310-2390 MHz and 3400-3600 MHz which should add up to 160MHz of spectrum alone.
This extra spectrum will compliment the 4G bandwidth set to be auctioned off by Ofcom in 2012.
The Government first made a commitment to freeing up spectrum during the Comprehensive Spending Review back in October. However, it is only today plans have been officially laid out.
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Although it is giving up a significant amount, the department confirmed it had future-proofed the proposal and ensured there was enough spectrum kept back for "public safety and national security" purposes.
"We must ensure the public sector uses this valuable resource as efficiently as possible," added Vaizey.
"If the public sector does not need it, then it should be released so businesses can use it to grow."
Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.
Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.
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