Where is spectrum management headed in 2025-35?

The seminar fits into the debate around the European Union's spectrum policy, as policymakers and the telecom sector try to keep up with demands for connectivity. Technological developments and evolutions in market structures have led to profound changes in Europe’s connectivity needs in recent years. The increasing scope of digitisation of both consumption and production, the convergence of fixed and mobile networks, consumers’ expectation of seamless connectivity, the emergence of the Internet of Things and Machine-to-Machine communication, and the increasingly complex demands of sectors such as transport and energy, have necessitated a revision of the EU’s radio spectrum policy.

In September 2016, in the context of the EU Electronic Communications Code, the Commission updated its rules regarding the management of radio spectrum.  While there is no doubt that Europe’s spectrum policy is forward-looking and aims to be more efficient in future spectrum allocation and use, questions remain as to whether it goes far enough.