broadband services: spectrum and applications

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Broadband Services: Spectrum and Applications

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Agenda

• Current use of C-band

• Why C-band?

• Review of the IMT needs

• Is sharing possible?

• Supporting organizations and next steps


• Why C-band?




Africa’s C-band Satellite User Groups: Achieving Policy Goals and Economic Objectives

Corporate Networks

Peace Keeping

Disaster Preparedness

Wireless Extension Services Telemedicine

Internet Connectivity

Maritime Communications

Distance Education

C-band

TV contribution

Aviation Security

Figures and examples from Euroconsult study

• Close to 50 satellites covering at least part of Africa with C-band capacity in 2014, out of around 72 satellites covering the region. Overall, satellite operators supply a total capacity of ~14 GHz in C-band in 2014 in Africa (~50% of “regular” capacity supply in the region, i.e. excluding HTS proprietary military satellites).

• Satellite capacity usage in C-band stood ~10.527 GHz in Sub Saharan Africa (“SSA”) in 2013, corresponding to a fill rate close to 80% of capacity supplied, and to around 58% of the total satellite capacity used in the region.

• A recent trend in Africa has been the emergence of regional/national systems. All satellites procured by organizations in SSA (i.e. Rascom, Nigcomsat, DRC and Angola) are carrying a C-band payload. Information available suggests that the C-band represents 20%-70% of the satellite capacity, with an average of ~45%.

Figures and examples from Euroconsult study

Education and health

~6,840 C-band VSAT sites for Nigeria, DRC and Angola

Air nav. & safety, police and security networks

Banking

International organizations & NGOs

Most sites have stringent requirements for reliable

and uninterrupted communications (>99.9% availability) that only C-

band can provide

Water & agriculture E-administration

Oil & gas, mining

Cellular backhaul, rural connectivity and ISPs

Others

Source: Afrographique: Mapping the largest African nations, 2012

50km

8 countries (over 50 million people) are 100% dependent on satellite for international connectivity

8

An estimated 40% of sub-Saharan Africa will not have access to broadband without greater use of satellite as complimentary technology.

40%

341 million people in sub-Saharan Africa live beyond a 50km range of terrestrial fibre optic network

Most of Africa’s population is concentrated in some of the most rainy areas

Bridging the digital divide

The Future of Broadcasting

• C-band is used to deliver programmes via terrestrial networks to 140 million users in Africa

• DTT will be key growth driver of TV penetration

• DTH is another key growth driver as satellite operators focus on growing free-to-air and free-to-view audience on the continent

• Strong demand growth for HD channel

86 million

TV home growth

123 million

2009 2015

TV Penetration

50% Analog

2015

Efficiently expanding Rural Networks

850 operators need to extend 2G, 3G and 4G service to remote areas (Informa)

HTS and small-cell base stations are making rural network expansion profitable for mobile operators

• Allocates bandwidth dynamically • Load sharing in times of high traffic/site and

congestion of cellular network • Use link as primary or back-up solution


• Why C-band?




Unique Attributes of Satellite C-band services

• C-band satellite services cannot easily be replicated at other satellite bands or via terrestrial means

• Geographic reach. C-band easily covers entire continents and oceans.

• Economically viable for intercontinental and global communications

• Efficient for Smaller or hard-to-reach markets and low density regions

• Particularly ideal for point-to-multipoint applications

• Resistance to rain-fade, making it better suited for tropical or high-rain areas.


• Why C-band?




Wrong assumptions from the IMT • Wrong assumptions leading to figure of 1,960 total megahertz of spectrum

needed by IMT by 2020

– based on the amount of terrestrial mobile spectrum that may be needed in the very most densely populated locations in the world

– the report’s estimates, even for the most densely populated locations, are substantially overestimated by least two orders of magnitude (a factor of 100 or more)

– user densities assumed in excess of 100,000 users/km2, with some entries higher than 200,000 users/km2. (most densely populated urban areas rarely exceed 30,000 inhabitants/km2)

– excessive expectations about the use of super-high-speed data services such as streaming high definition video

– underestimation of Wifi offload

There is Still Plenty of Spectrum Available to be Licensed

• Across the world less than 50% of mobile spectrum is licensed and even less of it is in use

• In Nigeria, a potential total of 1025 MHz could be used for IMT services; 825MHz is already allocated for IMT at regional level; only 420 MHz licensed.

• Same for Namibia, Tunisia, Botswana, Uganda (can still license 4 times the current amount of MHz)

• Despite the fact that a significant majority of Region 1 countries opted in for the footnote, very little implementation of IMT in these bands has been observed

Inadequacy of C-band for the IMT • Inadequacy of C-band for mobile services:

– effective range of a macro-cell mobile base station in C-band is about 2 kilometers in uncluttered conditions, far less than in lower spectrum bands

– this would dramatically escalate terrestrial network construction costs

– very poor penetration of buildings, particularly modern “green” construction, resulting in very poor reception indoors

• Other options for IMT: e.g. “digital dividend” broadcasting spectrum released as a result of digitalization of broadcasting channels and the release of surplus spectrum


• Why C-band?




• ITU studies – Studies have concluded that protection distances of between 51-430 km are necessary to allow co-frequency sharing

– Adjacent band protection distances to avoid LNB overload of FSS receivers are between 10-31 km

• Government, strategic, and commercial FSS services in the C-band will suffer:

• WiMAX testing led to 30% of TV households in Bolivia missing some of World Cup 2006

• Similar testing in Hong Kong led to 300,000 households across Asia to lose their TV service

Sharing between FSS and IMT is not feasible

Distortion of Received FSS Spectre by WiMAX Signal

Intermodulation products WiMAX

carrier

3.3 GHz 4.3 GHz

Escalation of Wireless Interference in Africa


• Why C-band?




WBU–ISOG Position on C-band

ICAO ‘No Change’ Position at WRC-15 Agenda Item 1.1

To oppose any new allocation to the mobile service in or adjacent to:

- frequency bands allocated to aeronautical safety services (ARNS, AM(R)S, AMS(R)S); or

- frequency bands used by fixed satellite service (FSS) systems for aeronautical purposes as part of the ground infrastructure for transmission of aeronautical and meteorological information of for AMS(R)S feeder links, unless it has been demonstrated through agreed studies that there will be no impact on aeronautical services.

UN World Food Program WRC Position • “WFP delivers food assistance to nearly 90 million beneficiaries around the

globe. To efficiently full-fill the mandate, our field operations critically depend on the global satellite network, operating in excess of 240 sites on all continents.

• All of these sites operate in the C and extended-C segment of the frequency spectrum. Needless to say that WFP supports any initiative that will assure an interference free, seamless service as we experience today.”

A wide Support in Favor of No Change “No Change” for Agenda Item 1.1 is further supported by:

• Nigeria, Senegal and a growing list of African administrations

• The International Maritime Organization

• The World Meteorological Organization

• The Pacific Islands

• A number of Central and South American nations

• Most of South Eastern Asia nations

• RCC (South East Europe) countries

ATU Common Position

• In Nairobi in July, the African Telecommunications Union (ATU) voted a common position in favor of “no change” for the band 3.6 GHz to 4.2 GHz.

Marie-Amandine Coydon

[email protected]

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broadband services: spectrum and applications

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