Due to the huge popularity and growing demand for high-speed internet access The GSM Directive recently approved access to new spectrum for advanced data, which can be used for accessing the internet on mobile phones at broadband speeds, and will soon be released following a major breakthrough by the European Union.
A number of European regulators have agreed to share out the spectrum they have more fairly, rather than auctioning it off to the highest bidder. This will allow the spectrum to be used throughout Europe for the current 3G mobile networks and the future 4G networks when they are implemented. This will give mobile phone users the chance to access the internet in the same way as home broadband users currently do, which will be seen as welcome news by many consumers.
Once the GSM directive, which was approved by the Council of Ministers, becomes law in September the Government will have just six months to roll out the measures that have been outlined in it.
Viviane Reding, the information and media commissioner said that by updating the GSM Directive the EU “has paved the way for a new generation of services and technologies where Europe can be a world leader”.
Many carriers will find that rolling out their country’s broadband stimulus plans will be made far more profitable by sharing the spectrum out more evenly. This will reduce the costs involved in bringing 3G mobile broadband access to rural locations due to the lower frequencies supporting much larger areas.
The introduction of this new GSM directive will also confirm the findings of many of the recent studies that have been carried out on mobile broadband, which have all found that it is likely there will be a huge explosion in the growth in this service.
With a yearly growth rate of nearly 93 percent the number of mobile broadband subscribers by the end of March passed the 225 million mark. Although this may seem like the perfect news for any mobile broadband provider the stark reality is that if the new GSM directive and possibly major upgrades to the backhaul networks in many countries are not completed soon, the level of congestion on most mobile broadband networks will render many services un-useable.
This is a guest post by Rob Webber, a Director at broadband comparison site www.broadband-expert.co.uk
