<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Ofcom today published plans to address the possibility of &amp;quot;capacity crunch&amp;quot; in mobile data in the future, as people consume evermore bandwidth on their mobile devices.  The regulator says that around 20 million gigabytes of data is now being consumed a month over the country&amp;#039;s mobile networks, more than twice as much as last year (9GB). This is equivalent to downloading 5 billion music tracks.    By 2030, Ofcom believes that demand for mobile data could be around 80 times higher than today, raising the possibility of a &amp;#039;capacity crunch&amp;#039; of not enough data to meet people&amp;#039;s needs.  Ofcom is therefore preparing plans to support the release of more spectrum for future mobile services, including the possible launch of fifth generation (5G) mobile, which is currently in testing.  EE, the joint venture of Orange and T-Mobile, launched fourth generation (4G) mobile in the UK this year after getting permission to reuse its existing 1800MHz spectrum.  Further 4G mobile services will launch in the UK next year over the 800MHz spectrum previously used for analogue television, which was freed up in the digital switchover and will be auctioned off by Ofcom.  Ofcom believes that digital terrestrial television (DTT) could be moved to a new set of frequencies in future, thus also freeing up the 700MHz band. This could go ahead &amp;quot;without the need for another TV switchover&amp;quot;, it added. The regulator wants to reuse the 700MHz frequency as part of &amp;quot;future harmonised spectrum planning across Europe and the rest of the world&amp;quot;.  It said that harmonising spectrum frequencies used for mobile broadband with other countries could &amp;quot;create economies of scale and widen the availability of handsets, which should in turn reduce prices for consumers&amp;quot;. Frequencies reserved in future for DTT could include the 600Mhz band, said Ofcom.   Most people would just need to retune their existing TV equipment should DTT move to a different frequency, but others may need to change their roof top aerials - a relatively costly exercise.  But Ofcom is looking quite far ahead into the future here, as it does not envisage putting together an international spectrum plan until 2018.  &amp;quot;Within the coming months we will hold the UK&amp;#039;s largest-ever auction of mobile spectrum for 4G,&amp;quot; said Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards.  &amp;quot;However, that may not be enough to meet consumers&amp;#039; future data demands, which is why we are already making significant efforts to prepare to go beyond 4G. &amp;quot;Our plans are designed to avoid a &amp;#039;capacity crunch&amp;#039;, ensuring that the UK&amp;#039;s mobile infrastructure can continue to support the inescapable growth in consumer demand and economic growth more generally.&amp;quot; However, Arqiva&amp;#039;s Charles Constable, the chair of DTT platform Freeview, warned that television has always been the &amp;quot;poor relation&amp;quot; when it comes to spectrum allocation.  &amp;quot;Freeview is the Nation&amp;#039;s most popular way to watch television so Ofcom&amp;#039;s clear long term commitment to the platform is welcome,&amp;quot; he said.  &amp;quot;Furthermore, there is a real opportunity for Ofcom to demonstrate that commitment by allocating spectrum in the immediate future for HD services in accordance with the proposals from the BBC, Channel 4 and Arqiva.  &amp;quot;However Ofcom has still yet to make the case to justify today&amp;#039;s proposed long term changes to allocate more future spectrum to mobile use, especially given the disruption they will cause to Freeview viewers.&amp;quot;  Ofcom has also revealed the scale of demand for mobile data in a new report. This indicated that the average mobile customer uses 245MB of data a month, twice as much as in the previous year. Half of all data transmitted in the UK is consumed by what Ofcom calls a &amp;quot;hungry hardcore of surfers&amp;quot;, who account for only 10% of internet users.  Ofcom said that coverage of mobile broadband has improved over the last year and now the proportion of UK premises which cannot receive a 3G signal, known as &amp;#039;not spot&amp;#039; areas, has fallen from 1.2% last year to 0.9%. Mobile capacity and coverage will improve further following the auction of new 4G spectrum, because a requirement of the auction licences is to reach at least 98% of the UK population with the superfast service.  &amp;gt; 4G: Is EE&amp;#039;s new mobile service worth it? "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tech/smartphones/news/a438675/ofcom-to-tackle-future-mobile-data-capacity-crunch/>