Response from Ofcom to DCMS on future of wireless networks (HTML version)
Published 14 October 2021
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Rt Hon Oliver Dowden CBE MP
Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport 4th Floor
100 Parliament Street
London
SW1A 2BQ
secretary.statesoffice@dcms.gov.uk
Lindsey Fussell
Group Director
Networks and Communications Group Direct line: 020 7981 3816
Lindsey.Fussell@ofcom.org.uk
BY EMAIL ONLY
4 August 2021
Dear Secretary of State
Thank you for your letter of 28 July to Melanie Dawes, requesting Ofcom’s support in gathering evidence and analysis for the Government’s Wireless Infrastructure Strategy. Wireless communication is playing an increasingly important role across the economy and society more generally. We recognise the importance of ensuring that market developments are properly reflected in the UK’s policy framework and welcome the opportunity to contribute to the Government’s work in this area.
As you note in your letter, Ofcom will shortly be launching a strategic review of the mobile market and undertaking several other relevant pieces of work, including a project on future spectrum needs. Through these pieces of work, we intend to take stock of the changes taking place across the mobile value chain, consider the implications for the market delivering positive outcomes for people and businesses, and consider how mobile spectrum demand may change during the period up to 2035. We will also be able to consider the majority of the points you raise on future market developments, future wireless connectivity needs, and future mobile spectrum needs.
We hope to be able to address elements of the remaining spectrum-related questions through our wider ongoing work. We recently published our spectrum management strategy for the 2020s, in which we set out our aim to create the conditions where efficiency of spectrum use can continue to increase over time, through initiatives such as greater sharing of spectrum, deployment of new technologies, and ‘recycling’ of spectrum from lower to higher value uses. We have set out details of how we plan to take this work forward and Ofcom colleagues would be happy to discuss further with counterparts at DCMS as appropriate.
We have noted the timescales to which you have requested evidence and analysis from Ofcom. We plan to publish a discussion paper on our strategic review of mobile markets and a consultation on mobile spectrum demand by the end of 2021. As a consequence, we will be able to provide our initial analysis to the timelines requested, with further input later in 2022 when we publish our initial conclusions for these areas of work.
I know our teams have already been working collaboratively on these issues and we are looking forward to this continuing as we take forward our work in this area.
Yours sincerely,
Lindsey Fussell
Group Director
Networks and Communications Group