Signalling a new era

Innovators rather than regulators should shape the future of wireless communications technology in the

, according to a senior policy maker at

.

Graham Louth, director of spectrum markets at Ofcom, which regulates radiocommunications in the UK, said policy on spectrum management is ‘moving from command and control to a more market-based approach.’

Ofcom grants licences ranging from two-way radios for taxis to the giant 3G mobile networks operated by companies such as Vodafone.

The planned more liberal approach would mean that instead of tightly restricting the use of specific portions of the spectrum to individual technologies, Ofcom would give technology developers and service providers a freer hand in deciding what works best, where. The regulator would only step in if there was a major technical problem — for example serious interference with adjacent portions of the spectrum — or overwhelming public interest issues.

‘We don’t see the need to impose those constraints unless there is an interference dimension,’ Louth told an audience of wireless communications specialists in Cambridge this week. ‘We believe the right approach is to be technology-neutral.’