With sales of smartphones and tablets skyrocketing, broadband and multimedia traffic on mobile networks has grown exponentially. To meet this ever-increasing demand cost effectively, operators will need more spectrum and new technology, as a partial alternative to building yet more infrastructure. Governments around the world have announced ambitious targets for spectrum releases to support growth agendas. Yet with spectrum being a scarce resource, the key question is where this additional spectrum will come from.

The 1.4 GHz band is sitting idle across Europe and could help meet these requirements in the next five years. In addition, it can play a role in providing very high speed broadband access at a lower cost than fibre or wired infrastructure. Harmonisation of this band for mobile broadband could generate economic benefits worth as much as €54bn for Europe.