chnologies, availability of spectrum can be considered as one of the driving factors behind 5G. For illustrative purposes, Figure 2.3 shows spectrum allocations to various services in the US. Over the past few decades, an exponential increase in data consumption has dominated the overall demand for 3G/4G services. This global data consumption of networks seems to undergo contiguous explosive growth. Figure 2.4 from an ITU-R Report in 2011 (ITU-R M.2243), compares the range of traffic growth estimates in 2005, the so-called baseball cap UNITED STATES FREQUENCY ALLOCATIONS THE RADIO SPECTRUM Figure 2.3 United States Frequency Allocations Chart 2016. 2 Market Drivers Comparison of M.2072 with Current Data 00 000 Forecast Range of 10 000 forecasts in M.2072 Actual Traffic Figure 2.4 Comparison of traffic estimates in 2005 with actual data. (Source: ITU-R). figure, with actual traffic values observed. As can be seen from Figure 2.4, the actual traffic growth surpassed even the higher, more aggressive forecasts of 2005. A similar attempt (ITU-RM.2290) to capture the traffic growth in the 4G era using similar methods is illustrated in Figure 2.5. In this case, again a range of forecasts was used to estimate the amount of spectrum needed to support the growth in traffic. As a result, a range of total spectrum requirements between 1340 and 1960 MHz (including existing 3G/4G spectrum) was calculated to support mobile services up to the year 2020 (ITU-R M.2290). Considering how the mobile industry landscape has changed since 2013, it is evident that there are major shortcomings in the methodologies used to arrive at spectrum estimates. This discrepancy between spectrum forecasts and actual data is at least partially due to the fact that increased data consumption of individuals (browsing, downloading, streaming, etc.) has been accompanied in the 5G era by addition of new and emerging applications requiring various types and amount of connectivity/data/resources dictating radio interface capabilities. As a result, new applic