Lofty government targets for the performance of 5G networks in several countries across Europe could be at risk from regulators failing to clear sufficient spectrum, Orange’s VP spectrum Steve Blythe told Mobile World Live.

Speaking after the company took part in the recent Spanish auction of licences in the 3.6GHz to 3.8GHz range, Blythe said regulators need to enact policies to guarantee there aren’t differences between government targets and what operators can physically deliver.

“For an industry perspective we need to make our requirements clear, I think we have done that fairly strongly,” he said. “But it’s a three way deal – governments are doing the right thing in saying 5G is going to be beneficial to the economy and deliver more benefits to the consumer.”

“They are also investing in R&D, but the next thing is the regulator element. Taking those government policies and making them something that is actually actionable,” Blythe (pictured, right) added.

Although the European Commission had “done good work” on setting out rules on the clearance of the 700MHz band across Europe, its comments on the 3.4GHz to 3.8GHz band – said to be the key range for successful 5G – have been much vaguer. The EC’s position, Blythe added, implores authorities to make as much spectrum available as possible without specific detail or timelines.

“This is the band where there’s a lot of disparity between individual countries,” he noted. “The national regulators need to resolve these problems otherwise there’ll be a difference in what the governments are promoting in objectives and what the mobile operators can deliver in terms of spectrum in this band.”

Secondary market
While praising the rules put forward by Spanish authorities during its spectrum auction, he said high prices and prohibitive polices in other countries could artificially raise demand and drive providers to the secondary market.

Here – he warned operators would likely be purchasing licences with shorter expiry dates or in frequencies not as “clean” as those auctioned. There is also a risk, the executive added, that non-mobile operators and companies using obsolete technologies such as WiMAX potentially are already licensed to use the space.