October 2014

The World Radiocommunication Conference in 2015 (WRC–15) will consider the award of co primary status to mobile in the 470–694MHz band in Region 1. A consortium of Abertis, Arqiva, BBC, BNE, EBU and TDF therefore requested Aetha to consider the economic benefits that would arise across the EU’s 28 Member States from mobile gaining access to the 470–694MHz band, compared to continued use for DTT and other existing uses. In our report we calculated the incremental costs and benefits if DTT transmissions were to cease and consumers migrated to alternative platforms (e.g. satellite) compared to continued use of the spectrum for DTT. We then considered the impacts on the DTT platform if a co-primary allocation were granted to mobile in this spectrum.