Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 23 May 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment

Commission for Communications Regulation Performance Review: Discussion

5:00 pm

Mr. Gerry Fahy:

It is likely to be one of the bands that will be designated also as a 5G band. As I said earlier, it is entirely suitable for wide-area coverage because that is what it is used for currently by RTE. It is a band that we have a lot of expectation for, as do other countries. At a European level it is being co-ordinated in respect of its release. Across Europe they are trying to ensure it is released by 2022 at the latest but in our case it will be 2020. The release of the spectrum here must be co-ordinated with the UK television operators because they must release the spectrum to their market at the same time. There is a whole European process around this spectrum because it is seen as a very strong contender for 5G services and for coverage in general.