The past 12 months has seen the leading economies wrestling with a new policy issue—satellite direct-to-device services—as well as assigning mid-band spectrum and finalising positions on 6 GHz. Read more...

Having recently delayed its planned 26 GHz and 40 GHz auction, UK regulator Ofcom remains focused on private spectrum access and developing a "hybrid sharing" solution for the upper 6 GHz band. Read more...

Vodafone calls itself the largest pan-European and African telecoms company, with 323 million mobile customers according to its FY23 annual report. It operates mobile and fixed networks in 17 countries, with stakes in another five countries through joint ventures and associates. It also partners with 46 countries outside its footprint,… Read more...

Telefónica is a diversified telecommunications group operating mainly in Europe and Latin America. It provides extensive 4G coverage and continues to build out its 5G and 5G standalone networks. It had 298.6 million mobile customers at the end of 2023. Read more...

Nations across Africa continue to implement unlicensed 6 GHz policies that are largely focused on the lower portion of the band (5925—6425 MHz) in line with the African Telecommunication Union’s (ATU) recommended use of this range. In line with CEPT and European Commission harmonisation decisions, most European nations have opened… Read more...

Thirty nations have assigned 26 GHz or 28 GHz spectrum or both, with ten of these nations planning further assignments. The majority of these assignments are in Asia (40%) and Europe (35%), although nations in all regions of the world are now looking to award spectrum in these high-bands. Read more...

Defence ministries around the world control a significant amount of spectrum. Thanks to advances in spectrum sharing, there is an opportunity to share some of these frequencies with commercial users, particularly from the mobile industry. But are defence users willing allies? Read more...

PolicyTracker’s 2023 country profiles cover Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Poland, Russia, South Korea, Sweden, the UK and the US. In this overview we analyse their spectrum release plans; approach to 6 GHz; policy on private networks; and plans for 6G. Read more...

Ofcom continues to improve its local licensing regimes and working towards a mmWave auction, while also considering new policy objectives put forth in the recently announced UK Wireless Infrastructure Strategy. Read more...

Now present in 54 countries, Starlink is a high-speed, low-latency broadband network using NGSO LEOs to provide broadband connectivity globally. Starlink satellites are using spectrum resources in the Ka- Ku- and V-bands. Starlink also has plans to use E-Band spectrum for communications between satellites and gateways and V2 Mini satellites.… Read more...