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...

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting Western sanctions have pushed Moscow into international isolation. Russian operators can no longer access foreign sources of high-quality base stations, meaning that acquiring new equipment for LTE is the main challenge on their minds rather than 5G. 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...

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...

The EU’s eastern flank states have been pursuing their 5G auction plans despite Russia’s inflexible stance on spectrum coordination. However, there are concerns that Moscow could "weaponise" its use of 700 MHz and 3.6 GHz spectrum in the future to hamper its neighbours' 5G rollout. Read more...

Unlike their counterparts in most countries, Russia’s operators are to start developing 5G services with the use of the 4.8 - 4.99 GHz band which is likely to delay the technology’s rollout in the market. As the 3.4 - 3.8 GHz band will continue to be used by the Russian… Read more...

The Russian authorities are aiming to release 5G spectrum, but the country’s leading mobile operators are yet to agree on whether to establish a joint venture to develop the necessary infrastructure. The outcome of their negotiations will most likely define the mode of spectrum distribution that will be adopted by… Read more...

Legend Population density (People per km2)  <1  1-5  5-25  25- 250  250-1000  >1000 Uninhabited  Read more...

Steady progress is being made in releasing 700 MHz for mobile with 30 auctions anticipated over the next three years. Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas are the furthest advanced but few definite plans have been made in Africa or central Asian countries. Read more...