Statement: Enabling wireless innovation through local licensing

Statement published: 25 July 2019

Radio frequencies are of significant importance to the UK economy and society because they allow all wireless communications devices, including mobile phones and wireless broadband, to operate.  We want to support innovation and enable new uses of spectrum, and we recognise there is growing interest in the use of mobile technology, including 5G, to develop solutions to meet local wireless connectivity needs. To ensure that lack of access to the radio spectrum does not prevent innovation, we are introducing a new licensing approach to provide localised access to spectrum bands that can support mobile technology.

This statement explains how we will allow more people and businesses to use spectrum from a choice of frequency bands. Local access to these bands could support growth and innovation across a range of sectors, such as manufacturing, enterprise, logistics, agriculture, mining and health. It could enable organisations to set up their own local networks with greater control over security, resilience and reliability than they may have currently. For example, manufacturers connecting machinery wirelessly, farmers connecting agricultural devices such as irrigation systems and smart tractors wirelessly, enterprise users setting up secure private voice and data networks within a site, as well as rural wireless broadband connectivity using fixed wireless access (FWA).