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Andrew Bonwick
Vice President of Product Development at Relm Insurance
Madhav Sheth
CEO of Ai+ Smartphone
Stephen Rose
CEO Render Networks
Spectrum is one of the powerful resources that is shaping the tech industry. Since 5G is on the shore, it has become more important than ever for countries to allocate spectrum effectively and efficiently. In case you are not aware, spectrum is a range of radio waves that are used for communication purposes. In general, the spectrum is divided into two categories which are licensed and unlicensed spectrum. Follow the article to the end for a detailed guide regarding licensed and unlicensed spectrum.
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What Are Licensed and Unlicensed Spectrum?
Spectrum is a finite resource, and its efficient allocation is crucial to facilitate newer technologies in future, just like 5G. When mobile network operators (MNO’s) take special licenses to operate with dedicated parts of the radio spectrum bands, it comes under the licensed spectrum. Except, the license holder, no other operator is allowed to use that part of the spectrum band for any purpose. Since the mobile network operators have full rights over the radio spectrum, it will enable them to offer high and reliable transmission speed along with data security and stability.
On the other side, the unlicensed spectrum is not owned by any specific mobile network operator. There are no rules associated with spectrum access. Nearly all the operators can use the spectrum band and deploy their services. Even though unlicensed spectrum offers flexibility, there are macro risks of interference and security in the network.
LPWA Technologies Differences Deployed on Licensed and Unlicensed Spectrum
There are two different LPWA (low-power, wide-area) technologies that are deployed in the licensed spectrum. The technologies are known as LTE-M and NB-IoT. Both the technologies are dubbed to be part of the 5G mMTC which will enable mass IoT. Also, LTE-M and NB-IoT are based on the standards set by 3GPP. The LPWA technologies that are used in unlicensed spectrum are LoRA and Sigfox. Both the technologies are said to be effective on the unlicensed bands that are used by multiple mobile network operators.
