SpectrumWiki

Radio spectrum allocations

Look up a frequency or a range.

Examples: 88.5 MHz, 1350–1430 MHz, 2.4 GHz

849 MHz (849,000,000 Hz)

U.S. Federal Government Allocations

614 – 890 MHz

Footnotes

  • 5.149   In making assignments to stations of other services to which the bands:
    13 360-13 410 kHz,
    25 550-25 670 kHz,
    37.5-38.25 MHz,
    73-74.6 MHz in Regions 1 and 3,
    150.05-153 MHz in Region 1,
    322-328.6 MHz,
    406.1-410 MHz,
    608-614 MHz in Regions 1 and 3,
    1 330-1 400 MHz,
    1 610.6-1 613.8 MHz,
    1 660-1 670 MHz,
    1 718.8-1 722.2 MHz,
    2 655-2 690 MHz,
    3 260-3 267 MHz,
    3 332-3 339 MHz,
    3 345.8-3 352.5 MHz,
    4 825-4 835 MHz, 4 950-4 990 MHz,
    4 990-5 000 MHz,
    6 650-6 675.2 MHz,
    10.6-10.68 GHz,
    14.47-14.5 GHz,
    22.01-22.21 GHz,
    22.21-22.5 GHz,
    22.81-22.86 GHz,
    23.07-23.12 GHz,
    31.2-31.3 GHz,
    31.5-31.8 GHz in Regions 1 and 3,
    36.43-36.5 GHz,
    42.5-43.5 GHz,
    48.94-49.04 GHz,
    76-86 GHz,
    92-94 GHz,
    94.1-100 GHz, 102-109.5 GHz,
    111.8-114.25 GHz,
    128.33-128.59 GHz,
    129.23-129.49 GHz,
    130-134 GHz,
    136-148.5 GHz,
    151.5-158.5 GHz,
    168.59-168.93 GHz,
    171.11-171.45 GHz,
    172.31-172.65 GHz,
    173.52-173.85 GHz,
    195.75-196.15 GHz,
    209-226 GHz,
    241-250 GHz,
    252-275 GHz
    are allocated, administrations are urged to take all practicable steps to protect the radio astronomy service from harmful interference. Emissions from spaceborne or airborne stations can be particularly serious sources of interference to the radio astronomy service (see Nos. 4.5 and 4.6 and Article 29). (WRC 07)

  • 5.296A   In Micronesia, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu, the frequency band 470-698 MHz, or portions thereof, and in Bangladesh, Maldives and New Zealand, the frequency band 610-698 MHz, or portions thereof, are identified for use by these administrations wishing to implement International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) – see Resolution 224 (Rev.WRC 19). This identification does not preclude the use of these frequency bands by any application of the services to which they are allocated and does not establish priority in the Radio Regulations. The mobile allocation in this frequency band shall not be used for IMT systems unless subject to agreement obtained under No. 9.21 and shall not cause harmful interference to, or claim protection from, the broadcasting service of neighbouring countries. Nos. 5.43 and 5.43A apply. (WRC 19)

  • 5.305   Additional allocation: in China, the band 606-614 MHz is also allocated to the radio astronomy service on a primary basis.

  • 5.306   Additional allocation: in Region 1, except in the African Broadcasting Area (see Nos. 5.10 to 5.13), and in Region 3, the band 608-614 MHz is also allocated to the radio astronomy service on a secondary basis.

  • 5.307   Additional allocation: in India, the band 608-614 MHz is also allocated to the radio astronomy service on a primary basis.

  • 5.312   Additional allocation: in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, the Russian Federation, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Ukraine, the frequency band 645-862 MHz, and in Bulgaria the frequency bands 646-686 MHz, 726-753 MHz, 778-811 MHz and 822 852 MHz, are also allocated to the aeronautical radionavigation service on a primary basis. (WRC 19)

  • 5.313A   The frequency band, or portions of the frequency band 698-790 MHz, in Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Korea (Rep. of), Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kiribati, Lao P.D.R., Malaysia, Myanmar (Union of), New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Dem. People’s Rep. of Korea, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Viet Nam, are identified for use by these administrations wishing to implement International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT). This identification does not preclude the use of these frequency bands by any application of the services to which they are allocated and does not establish priority in the Radio Regulations. (WRC 19)

  • 5.316B   In Region 1, the allocation to the mobile, except aeronautical mobile, service in the frequency band 790 862 MHz is subject to agreement obtained under No. 9.21 with respect to the aeronautical radionavigation service in countries mentioned in No. 5.312. For countries party to the GE06 Agreement, the use of stations of the mobile service is also subject to the successful application of the procedures of that Agreement. Resolutions 224 (Rev.WRC 19) and 749 (Rev.WRC 19) shall apply, as appropriate. (WRC 19)

  • 5.317   Additional allocation: in Region 2 (except Brazil, the United States and Mexico), the frequency band 806 890 MHz is also allocated to the mobile-satellite service on a primary basis, subject to agreement obtained under No. 9.21. The use of this service is intended for operation within national boundaries. (WRC 15)

  • 5.317A   The parts of the frequency band 698-960 MHz in Region 2 and the frequency bands 694-790 MHz in Region 1 and 790-960 MHz in Regions 1 and 3 which are allocated to the mobile service on a primary basis are identified for use by administrations wishing to implement International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) – see Resolutions 224 (Rev.WRC 19), 760 (Rev.WRC 19) and 749 (Rev.WRC 19), where applicable. This identification does not preclude the use of these frequency bands by any application of the services to which they are allocated and does not establish priority in the Radio Regulations. (WRC-19)

  • 5.318   Additional allocation: in Canada, the United States and Mexico, the bands 849-851 MHz and 894-896 MHz are also allocated to the aeronautical mobile service on a primary basis, for public correspondence with aircraft. The use of the band 849-851 MHz is limited to transmissions from aeronautical stations and the use of the band 894-896 MHz is limited to transmissions from aircraft stations.

  • 5.319   Additional allocation: in Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine, the bands 806-840 MHz (Earth-to-space) and 856-890 MHz (space-to-Earth) are also allocated to the mobile-satellite, except aeronautical mobile-satellite (R), service. The use of these bands by this service shall not cause harmful interference to, or claim protection from, services in other countries operating in accordance with the Table of Frequency Allocations and is subject to special agreements between the administrations concerned.

  • 5.320   Additional allocation: in Region 3, the bands 806-890 MHz and 942-960 MHz are also allocated to the mobile-satellite, except aeronautical mobile-satellite (R), service on a primary basis, subject to agreement obtained under No. 9.21. The use of this service is limited to operation within national boundaries. In seeking such agreement, appropriate protection shall be afforded to services operating in accordance with the Table, to ensure that no harmful interference is caused to such services.

Wiki entries

WRC Agenda Item 1.5, ITU Region 1

Proposed Use
470–960 MHz Review spectrum use and needs in Region 1
"to review the spectrum use and spectrum needs of existing services in the frequency band 470-960 MHz in Region 1 and consider possible regulatory actions in the frequency band 470-694 MHz in Region 1 on the basis of the review in accordance with Resolution 235 (WRC-15)"

3GPP 4G/5G Bands

Current Use
832–862 MHz 3GPP 4G LTE & 5G NR Band 20/N20 Uplink (Europe)
3GPP is the global standards organization for 4G LTE and 5G NR radio technologies. It designates multiple bands throughout the radio spectrum for 4G/5G use. Different combinations of bands are used in different countries and regions.

Bands designated with a "B" are standardized for 4G LTE; bands designated with an "N" are 5G. Some bands are designated for both.

Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) uses paired bands, where one band is used for downlink (DL) transmissions from the base station to the user terminal (i.e., handset), and the other band is used for uplink (UL) transmissions from the user terminal to the base station.

Time Division Duplex (TDD) uses the same band for both uplink and downlink, which share the same frequency in time over ~millisecond timescales.

Standard LTE Bands

Current Use
832–862 MHz LTE band 20 FDD uplink
The following bands have been defined by 3GPP as standard LTE bands for Frequency Division Duplex (FDD, where mobile and base stations transmit in separate bands) and Time Division Duplex (TDD, where mobiles and bases transmit and receive on the same frequency). These bands are defined in 3GPP TS 36.101 (link below).

Note that bands 15 & 16 and 30-32 are not defined, and the FDD band 29 is used for downlink-only for carrier aggregation, so it has no corresponding uplink band.

Uplinks refer to the frequencies used for handsets and other user devices to transmit to the base station, and downlinks refer to frequencies used by base stations to transmit to the user devices.

Commercial Air-to-Ground Telephone Service

Current Use
849–851 MHz Ground-to-air
The bands 849 - 851 and 894 - 896 MHz are allocated to the aeronautical mobile service and are used to provide air-to-ground telephone service for commercial airlines. Most people will recognize the Verizon Airfone service, which is installed in the seatbacks of many commercial airlines and which uses this band for its service. The lower band (849 - 851 MHz) is used by the base stations located on the ground to transmit to the planes; transmissions from the planes back to the ground use the upper band, 894 - 896 MHz.

In its original incarnation, the commercial air-to-ground telephone service was to support up to six licensees in this band, where all of the licensees would share the band for traffic channels, and each licensee would have dedicated control channels to manage its own traffic. In the end, Verizon Airfone (originally operated under GTE) was the only operator to remain commercially viable, and even they are estimated to handle, on average, only about three calls per flight. Due to channel bandwidth limitations, the only services that could be offered were voice phone calls and very slow dial-up-quality data connections.

By 2005, the FCC realized that the spectrum was not being used efficiently and instigated a rule making proceeding leading to the auction of new licenses for this band. The exact band plan for this spectrum was left as one of the bidding parameters, and the final result was a plan that provided a 3 MHz license (the bottom 1.5 MHz of each of the two bands), and a 1 MHz license (the top 0.5 MHz of each band). Auction 65, completed in June 2006, generated $38,339,000 for the U.S. treasury, with ACBidCo winning the 3 MHz license and LiveTV winning the 1 MHz license.

Although Verizon Airfone participated in the auction, they did not win, and the FCC banished their operations to the spectrum occupied by the 1 MHz license, and allowed them to continue service until 2010 on a shared basis with the new licensee. On May 13th, 2010, Verizon's Airfone license, KNKG804, expired for good. In June 2008, LiveTV, the winning bidder for Airfone's spectrum, announced that it was purchasing the Verizon Airfone network.