The draft of TASRF has been uploaded to the MoITT website for open consultation before approval by the Federal Cabinet, according to MoITT.
The draft of the first Telecom Airwaves Spectrum Refarming Framework (TASRF) has been finalised by the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT).
“After multiple consultations, telecommunication is pleased to finalise the framework on spectrum refarming, which is the first of its kind and prepared with recommendations from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), the Frequency Allocation Board (FAB), and industry stakeholders,” said a news release.
The draft has been uploaded to the MoITT website for open consultation before approval by the Federal Cabinet, according to the Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication.
According to him, frequency or airwaves spectrum refarming is a process that governs the repurposing of frequency bands that were previously allocated for legacy cellular services for new generations of mobile technologies such as emerging technologies, the Internet of Things, and 5th Generation Technology for on-the-ground inclusion of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
According to the Minister, in light of the increasing demand for cellular and radio communication services around the world and emerging technologies, spectrum refarming is regarded as a powerful and innovative approach to managing the spectrum dynamically in order to make it available for newer commercial applications such as 5G, the Internet of Things, broadband wireless access, and digital broadcasting.
The framework will allow for more effective use of available frequency spectrum for front-end and backhaul frequencies, increased potential business viability for licensees, improved quality and coverage of mobile broadband services, and additional revenue for the national exchequer.
The framework must provide operators with enough contiguous spectrum to support the concurrent operation of multiple technologies in a frequency band.
PTA/PEMRA and FAB will recommend to MOIT&T the requirement to refarm any given frequency band for efficient utilisation based on international developments, including but not limited to technological trends, vendor reports, feedback from telecom operators, the R&D landscape, survey reports, and, most importantly, recommendations from the ITU, IEEE, ETSI, 3GPP, 3GPP2, GSMA, and other standard-setting bodies.