• Spectrum, in telco speak, are radio waves that are used for communication purposes.

• It is a limited resource owned by the government and assigned to “… service providers who will use it efficiently and effectively to meet public demand for telecommunications services.” (R.A. 7925 “Public Telecommunications Policy Act of the Philippines”)

• The government decides what type of service a particular frequency band can be used for (e.g. TV broadcasting, AM/FM radio, satellite, mobile phones, etc).

• In the Philippines, the following spectrum bands have been assigned to mobile telecommunications:

Why is spectrum everybody’s business?

How will additional spectrum resources allow us to deliver faster internet? Watch this:

Why is 700 MHz important?

The 700 MHz band is considered as “beach front” property as it is the most valuable frequency range for 4G/LTE technology.  It has excellent propagation characteristics and has greater coverage compared to frequencies on higher bands.    

Deploying 700 MHz: What we need to do in order to reap the benefits of the 700 MHz

1. Install antennas/infrastructure that can operate at 700 MHz spectrum band as different frequencies require different types of antenna.

2. Reinforce existing cell towers to accommodate the larger 700 MHz antennas.

3. Existing telecommunications devices need to be upgraded by the carriers

4. We need to build more cell sites. As it is, existing cell sites are not adequate for the number of internet users.