At the last Consultative Group meeting the RA presented the proposals to issue licences in the 28GHz band for BFWA in three equal packages in a number of regions. The original proposals were for three equal spectrum packages which were assumed to include guard band requirements between the operator assignments in order to facilitate co-existence between operators in the same area. These studies have also shown that deployment scenarios impact the guard band requirements.
Different studies conclude differently on the required guard band size.
Under certain conditions these large guard bands might be unnecessary and lead to wasted spectrum which could otherwise be used under certain conditions. The RA wishes to maximise the spectrum available and used for BFWA services. However there remain some drawbacks to this approach. An agreement needs to be reached over the acceptable level of potential interference between operators given that complete protection cannot be guaranteed without excessive guard bands. The band plan leads to the situation where the centre 2x112MHz assignment has a greater co-operation burden with operators on either side of the assignment.