Regional telecoms watchdog the Eastern Caribbean Telecommunications Authority (ECTEL), which currently comprises five nations – the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines – has published an update on the process for the release of 700MHz spectrum in ECTEL member states.
Although the overarching policy regarding the future of current broadcast frequencies in the 698MHz to 806MHz band channel was formulated in April 2009, ECTEL’s board of directors have opted to implement what they call ‘consequential changes’ by revising the labels of the 740MHz-746MHz and 800MHz-806MHz blocks to ‘B’ and ‘C’ respectively, thus aligning the band plan with that of the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and also with the 3GPP band 17 plan that was devised for Long Term Evolution (LTE) 700MHz spectrum.
As a general rule, each block will be assigned as a 2×6MHz paired block, but ECTEL ‘reserves the right to make slight practical adjustments to this rule based on the adequately justified actual needs of providers expressed in their applications’. Despite its progress, ECTEL has yet to provide a timeline for the provision of 700MHz frequencies.