Page 84 - ITUJournal Future and evolving technologies Volume 2 (2021), Issue 1
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ITU Journal on Future and Evolving Technologies, Volume 2 (2021), Issue 1




          and  private  operators,  national  and  regional    –     the  contribution  of  the  mobile  industry  to
          telecommunication  groups  provoke  a  lot  of             global  GDP  in  2018  achieved  nearly  USD  4
          controversial technical discussions leading to non-        trillion [6];
          optimal  allocation  decisions.  The  latter  are    –     the  economic  benefits  of  accurate  weather
          producing negative externalities, innovation delays,       forecasts  obtained  from  satellite  Earth
          late comer price, increases in transaction costs and       monitoring  systems  that  can  mitigate  the
          non-harmonized  spectrum  exploitation.  The  key          economic consequences of  natural disasters
          reason   for   the   inefficient   decision-making         in  EU  countries  is  estimated  at  61  billion
          mentioned above is the choice of solely depending          Euros annually [7];
          on technical criteria in spectrum management such
          as  electromagnetic  compatibility  with  incumbent   –    reallocation of 500 MHz spectrum band from
          applications.  In  some  cases,  the  principle  of        TV companies and federal agencies to mobile
          “protection of existing radio services” could be seen      operators  created  250 000  new  jobs  in  the
          as somewhat obsolete and the introduction of new           United States of America [8];
          technologies would benefit from the reallocation of   –    as a part of the US federal plan to combat the
          spectrum from incumbent operators to newcomers.            coronavirus,  600 MHz  of  the  spectrum  has
          The   traditional   approach   requires   further          been  reallocated  from  satellite  to  mobile
          improvement  in  international  and  national              operators for 60 days, “supporting social life,
          spectrum  management  systems  by  applying                to  keep  economy  going  and  to  connect
          economic criteria and valuations to accommodate            remotely to health care professionals during
          booming spectrum demand.                                   this crisis” [9].

          This  paper  defines  the  place  and  role  of  the   Earth  observation  and  meteorological  systems
          spectrum  in  the  digital  economy,  specifies  major   contribute towards achieving all the United Nations
          spectrum users and considers the economic value of   Strategic  Development  Goals  (SDGs),  without  a
          spectrum use. The author embraces multivariable      single exception. In addition, data obtained by using
          direct  and  indirect  boundaries,  related  to  energy,   relevant radio systems are essential for monitoring
          environmental,  sanitary  and  biogeotechnical       the results of SDG initiatives. Around 30 of the 232
          restrictions.  The  study  covers  the  phenomena  of   indicators  developed  for  monitoring  progress
          increasing   transaction   costs   and   negative    towards the SDGs can be verified only based on data
          externalities  of  spectrum  access.  This  work     obtained from Earth observation satellites.
          proposes  input-output  Leontief  matrix  as  an     Additional important areas where spectrum use has
          allocation  instrument  to  achieve  spectrum        a significant impact are radio astronomy and space
          efficiency and optimum output based on an analysis   research,  which  are  crucial  to  studies  of  classical
          of  the  economic  effect  from  different  band     physics and Universe evolution. Research in these
          utilization scenarios. The arguments of the present   areas, based on data obtained with the aid of the
          article deal with the problem of spectrum efficiency,   relevant radio systems, have an enormous impact
          but comments received seem equally applicable for    on the development of other sectors of the economy
          post-pandemic economic development in order to       which,  at  first  glance,  would  appear  to  have  no
          choose an optimal scenario of natural resources use   relation  to  those  spectrum-based  systems.  For
          on a global and national level.
                                                               example, the success of algorithms for processing
          2.   ECONOMIC VALUE OF SPECTRUM USE                  large data volumes in radio astronomy and cosmic
                                                               research  have  been  a  foundation  of  the  digital
          Table 1 shows that in recent decades spectrum is     economy.
          directly or indirectly used practically in all industry
          sectors,  standing  as  one  of  the  key  factors   Spectrum  use  has  considerable  social  importance
          promoting    economic,   social   and   cultural     from  the  point  of  view  of  a  State's  obligations  to
          development,  increasing  consumer  and  producer    protect the basic rights of its citizens in democratic
          surplus,  enhancing  public  welfare,  protecting    society. It is not coincidental that basic provisions
          safety-of-life and improving living standards.       concerning spectrum management in France are set
                                                               by legislation on freedom of speech and information.
          Some  facts  illustrating  the  economic  value  of   Radiocommunication  is  critical  in  all  phases  of
          spectrum use for the modern economy and society      disaster      management.        Aspects       of
          are as follows:                                      radiocommunication  associated  with  disasters






          68                                 © International Telecommunication Union, 2021
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