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Former NTC chief queries frequency reallocations

04/24/2009

Former National Telecom-munications Commission deputy commissioner Jorge Sarmiento had opposed the draft circular on the reallocation of wireless local loop (WLL) frequencies to broadband wireless access (BWA) prior to his resignation as it had failed to address concerns raised against its viability.

In a three-page comment on the draft memorandum circular on the re-allocation of the frequency band 1710-1720/1805-1815 megahertz to BWA, Sarmiento expressed his reservations and questioned the wisdom and the basis for the reallocation.

“I have my concerns on the draft MC,” said Sarmiento who took note of points he gathered from the public hearing on the matter by held by the NTC as well as the lone position paper submitted to the NTC by Express Telecommunications Co.

He noted that the draft circular had failed to respond to arguments that the said frequency band is reserved for cellular mobile telecommunications system (CMTS) in accordance with existing international conventions and with industry and regulatory best practices.

“Are these frequency bands ideal for BWA? We have not seen any paper about this,” said Sarmiento adding that if the global trend is to use the frequency for CMTS and not BWA, “what is the basis for the re-allocation?”

Sarmiento also pointed out that the NTC had failed to sufficiently address the issue of interference between BWA using 1710-1720/1805-1815 and CMTS 1720-1725/1815-1820 which has been allocated to Extelcom.

“Studies showed that interferences are inevitable and unavoidable between the BWA and CMTS services using the adjacent bands for re-allocation,” he said noting that, to lessen interference, there is a need to use 5 Mhz as guard bands.

Because of this, Sarmiento said that only 5 Mhz (instead of 10 Mhz) will thus be left if the band is to be used for BWA and “that is not what we envision to maximize the utilization of BWA frequency bands.

“Considering that the aforesaid bands are found in the lower end of the GSM 1800 band, the best reallocation to be made under the circumstances would be for CMTS vs the contemplated BWA,” he said.

Sarmiento also cited reports that there are no readily available equipment for BWA using these bands while equipment for 2G technology and GSM 1800 are available in big quantities since the technology is mature and very much in use.