# Spectrum Values in Suburban/Urban Environments above 1.5 GHz
## 1 Introduction  
The electronics and communications industry has had a huge impact on the national economy [1]. Radio frequency (RF) is a frequency or band of frequencies ranging from 10 kHz to 300 GHz used for radio communications. The RF spectrum is the backbone of all telecommunication services and this rare and precious resource has one of the highest economic values in the country [2]. It is critical for the regional regulators or service providers to know the value of different frequency bands so as to make policies, manage cellular market, and deploy cellular networks. Therefore, for both regulators and carriers, the estimation of spectrum value and comparisons of the estimate are very important when additional new bands are allocated for new services such as fifth-generation (5G) telecommunications technology. There was a myth that in policy circles that had many believing spectrum value was not related to the frequency and all spectrums were of equal value [3]. The truth is that the spectrum value is not only selected based on the verities of economic issues in [1] but also technically by the frequency of the spectrum itself. Frequency determines the physical properties of radio waves, which result in how far the radio wave can be reached and how much strong signal can be received. These key parameters greatly affect network coverage and capacity which directly impact on the cost and revenue of service providers. The estimation of radio spectrum value has been widely studied by economists and financial analysts using the three general techniques Market Comparable, discounted cash flow (DCF), and Econometrics [4]. However, the spectrum value has rarely been investigated from the perspectives of mobile communication engineering. In [3], engineering-economic approaches of quantifying and comparing the spectrum values were proposed, and the frequency spectrum ranging from 500 MHz to 1.5 GHz was investigated in rural, suburban and urban settings. However, the investigation in [3] did not cover frequencies other than 500 MHz to 1.5 GHz. Furthermore, the numerical results did not include the urban scenario, where most of the population is located. Though current cellular systems are mainly operated at frequency bands lower than 3 GHz, the higher frequency spectrum up to millimeter-wave (mmWave) bands is also under consideration for 5G deployment [5]. Radio propagation is the behavior of radio waves travelling from one place to another, which are affected by the phenomena of reflection, refraction, diffraction, absorption, polarization, and scattering. Empirical propagation models based on observations and measurement are broadly used in feasibility studies and initial deployment for cellular network planning, to predict the attenuation of an electromagnetic wave (path loss) [6]. The Hata model was proposed early as an empirical formulation based on data from the Okumura Model [7], which is known to be suitable for frequency bands from 150 MHz to 1.5 GHz. The IEEE working group 802.16 proposed a standard that employed frequency bands up to 11 GHz using the Stanford University Interim (SUI) channel models developed by Stanford University [6]. As even higher frequency bands are required for the 5G system, it is necessary to evaluate new propagation models to determine their feasibility. A 3D path loss model was proposed by 3 GPP extending from previous channel models such as the 3D SCM model (3 GPP TR 36.873) and the IMT-Advanced model (ITU-R M.2135) [8]. The 3D model supports frequency bands from 500 MHz to 100 GHz in the urban environment and includes various parameters such as penetration loss, shadow fading, and environment heights. In another of our research work [9], the spectrum value of frequency bands ranging from 1.5 GHz to 11 GHz in rural environment is analyzed by using SUI model and 3 GPP 3D model [8].