Background
The digitalisation of industry is a priority for every country as governments seek to deliver economic growth. Simultaneously, enterprises seek to enhance productivity and streamline their businesses through effective access to connectivity.
Approaches to providing connectivity for enterprise and local networks have varied, and the use of public spectrum resources must benefit businesses and consumers simultaneously. Interventionist approaches such as spectrum set-asides should be avoided in favour of licensing mechanisms that let public mobile flourish alongside government and enterprise digitalisation.
Enterprise and government uses of spectrum include smart utility grids, industrial automation, delivering goods by drones and supporting advanced public safety and transport networks. Connected enterprises need to be agile and open to the challenges and opportunities of the 5G era of digitalisation.
Policymakers play a vital role by managing the spectrum that underpins these developments, and care needs to be taken to ensure private mobile network requirements are fully supported without harming other wireless users. Private networks are an integral part of 5G, enabling industrial applications, logistics hubs, local campus networks and many more functions.
Private networks do not necessarily depend on set-aside spectrum or local licences. Instead, these networks are widely provided through mobile operator licences using network slices or through bespoke infrastructure on nationally licenced spectrum. Set-asides that favour a particular category of licensee are an aggressive regulatory tool that has an economic cost and can be avoided with best-practice licensing.
Debate
Spectrum access is critical as governments focus on policies that encourage both enterprise (e.g. smart factories) and government (e.g. smart cities) digitalisation. How can governments and regulators develop spectrum policies that support private and local mobile networks without negatively affecting commercial 5G services?
Industry position
Policymakers should ensure that private mobile networks can get the connectivity they need to support their use cases without undermining other spectrum users. Mobile bands should be assigned fairly and efficiently.
Spectrum set-asides for government or enterprise use can lead to insufficient spectrum being available for mobile operators to use and meet all their 5G requirements and capabilities. Scarcity also encourages higher prices to be paid for spectrum, which is strongly linked to lower network investment, slower rollouts, limited coverage and reduced data speeds. Where industries require access to specific licensed bands, they can do so, for example, via sharing and leasing agreements with mobile operators.
The following considerations should inform spectrum policy decisions about private networks:
- Well-designed licence conditions are the least intrusive mechanism for providing spectrum for enterprise or government users.
- Spectrum set-asides do not incentivise digitalisation, but can harm public
- Spectrum sharing has limitations but may be used if necessary.
- Above all, regulators need to ensure that enough spectrum is available in harmonised bands via a balanced and transparent process.
- Spectrum that is set aside for mobile networks for verticals in core mobile bands can also threaten the wider success of 5G, including slower rollouts, worse performance and reduced coverage.
- Policymakers should consider the coexistence challenges when different use cases need to be supported in the same mobile band.
Resources
Best Practice in Mobile Spectrum Licensing, GSMA, 2022
Spectrum Policy Trends 2023, GSMA, 2023
Spectrum for Digitalisation, GSMA, 2025