Philippine’s Globe Telecom said it would support initiatives by the ITU and GSMA to harmonise spectrum allocations to allow easier and cheaper global broadband expansion.
According to Boston Consulting Group-GSMA report, Asia-Pacific countries that back a regional plan for harmonization of mobile broadband spectrum in the 700-MHz band stand to gain up to $1 trillion in GDP growth in the next eight years,
The study claims that the plan proposed by the Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT) to harmonize the allocation of digital-dividend spectrum is the ticket to unlocking a collective $1 trillion in GDP growth between 2014 and 2020.
Thus, it is imperative that Asia-Pacific carriers come-up with a common stand on the issue of spectrum harmonization, Froilan Castelo, head of Globe corporate and legal services group and a member of GSMA's Asian chief regulatory officer group said in a statement.
Consistency and fairness in the allocation of frequency spectrum would help boost competitiveness and give telcos the opportunity to further expand penetration and offer more compelling products and services, he urged.
While the power of managing spectrum allocation is in the hands of the regulators, Castelo said “we believe that a review and revision of frequency spectrum can bring benefits to a greater number of people, particularly in far-flung, rural areas.”