Business opportunities and challenges with TVWS and LSA for Telco companies

Abstract: Over the last ten years, the demand for data has been increasing exponentially. To meet this demand, there are three ways to proceed: increasing the number of antennas, enhancing spectrum efficiency, enlarging bandwidths. This paper is focused on the last option, enlarging the bandwidth, and more precisely on the reuse or secondary use of frequencies through Licensed Shared Access and TV white spaces. This work aims at determining the potential development of these two new regulatory regimes and the potential impact on the telecom ecosystem and business.There is a common understanding of TVWS and regulators are implementing similar frameworks. The industry and regulators have launched plenty of trials and developed many standards. There are even some examples of commercial releases. However, the amount of channels available for TVWS activities is still uncertain since regulators have not stated their positions on the balancing between TVWS and digital dividend (refarming). Their decision will influence the market size and consequently the market take-up.Similarly to TVWS, national and international coherent regulatory frameworks are being developed around LSA. There is also a common view on uses among actors. Indoor coverage is one of the most mentioned uses. This will enhance the actors’ confidence in LSA, and might consequently increase investment. However, standardization is needed to bring the necessary economies of scale. The incumbents’ willingness to share their spectrums and the fees level are still unclear. These last parameters will have large impact on LSA take-up.The second part of the thesis tries to determine what ecosystems might develop. With TVWS, there are no licence fees or coverage requirements included in licence, which lowers the entrance barriers. This paper presents strategies where other players than MNOs provide connectivity. These strategies, which were built through group exercises done by Telecom workers, bring opportunities to these new connectivity providers and also values for its potential clients. Moreover, these new connectivity provider strategies possess real strengths and only limited weaknesses. However, the MNOs’ reluctance to support this new ecosystem is the most dangerous threat to its development.To a slightly lesser extent, LSA also lowers the entrance barriers into the connectivity-providing business. This is a game-changer for indoor coverage since LSA might enable the development of scenarios and ecosystems which were previously considered as hypothetical. Thus, scenario where a Managed Service Providers or a Network Equipment Providers offers connectivity (without MNOs) to a premise or a MVNO has the potential to take up. This strategy is valuable for connectivity providers and their clients. Here, financing this strategy is also a challenge, but the most important risk might arise from the MNOs’ pressures on the ecosystem’s actors to prevent this strategy from developing.