Spectrum war: The battle for the digital dividend

The digital dividend discussion represents an obvious conflict of interest between on the one hand the traditional broadcasters and market players from other mobile communication sectors and on the other hand between the stake holders within the mobile communication sector. The first one being a conflict in accessing to the valuable spectrum resources allocated to TV broadcast that has been there for many years and which has been intensified in different phases of technological development and the second being an obvious conflict of interest between the different stake holders within the mobile communications sector, including commercial mobile operators and the stake holders representing specific uses like Public Safety and Emergency (PSE), Intelligent Traffic System (ITS), etc in getting access to these resources. The paper gives an analysis of the digital dividend and discusses relevant new applications, technology and the policy/regulatory issues at European and international level.