Statement: Protecting passive services at 23.6-24 GHz from future 26 GHz uses

Statement published 4 July 2022

The 26 GHz band has been identified to help deliver 5G services to people and businesses. Its use will complement the 5G services already being rolled out in other bands (such as 3.4 3.8 GHz). We would like to make the 26 GHz band available as soon as possible as part of our work to enable new uses of mmWave spectrum.

However, there is a risk that new services in 26 GHz could interfere with sensitive uses in the nearby 24 GHz band. Radio astronomers, as well as climate and weather scientists, use the 24 GHz band to carry out sensitive observations and measurements. It is important to protect these sensitive services against interference from other services using nearby frequencies.

Following public consultation, we have decided that, in addition to implementing limits on out-of-band emissions from services operating in the 26 GHz band, we will apply additional measures to protect the Radio Astronomy and Earth Exploration Satellite Services that operate in the 24 GHz band.

The additional measures are:

• to protect the Earth Exploration Satellite Service: we will limit the number (within any 300 km² area) of outdoor 26 GHz base stations which can be deployed in the lowest 800 MHz of the 26 GHz band.
• to protect the Radio Astronomy Service:
  • for outdoor 26 GHz use, we will not permit the deployment of 26 GHz base stations close to the six radio astronomy sites that comprise the e-MERLIN array.
  • for indoor 26 GHz use, additional measures are not required. We will therefore remove the existing 1 km exclusion zones around Jodrell Bank and Cambridge radio astronomy sites from the current indoor 26 GHz Shared Access licence product.