BAI Communications, the Australian towerco and neutral host, announced at the end of last year that it had been awarded up to 50MHz of spectrum in the 3.8 GHz band to complement their existing holding of mmWave spectrum. The ownership of spectrum is unusual for a towerco, but the use of spectrum is essential to deliver their model of Private Mobile Networks.
BAI Communications covering the cities
Unlike normal GSM licences and spectrum allocations, the 3.8 GHz band spectrum has been allocated through an "area-wide apparatus licence," where each licenced area represents a 1.8 x 1.8km cell in a pre-defined grid that covers all of Australia.
BAI has acquired bandwidth in major metropolitan and regional locations where there is a high concentration of industries that can benefit from a private connectivity solution. Stephen Farrugia, Chief Technology Officer, BAI Communications said “This spectrum will be a key enabler for deployment and operation of private mobile networks.”
BAI Communications, and its northern hemisphere sister company Boldyn Networks, has experience in private mobile networks and operates over 50 private networks including ports, industrial, logistics, manufacturing and hospitals across Europe.
A private mobile network delivers a reliable, secure and dedicated solution to solving connectivity needs which are not possible with the current options available. “We are working extensively with our partners, which include leading vendors and system integrators in the industry, to provide end-to-end solutions. We are already seeing significant interest in the ports and transport sectors. This is a major inflection point to enable private mobile network adoption in Australia,” added Nick Gurney, Director Telecommunications, BAI Communications.
BAI was granted this spectrum by ACMA through an application-based process, not a spectrum auction. This process allows for spectrum to be allocated more cheaply to those that are not building nationwide GSM networks. Similar processes for spectrum allocation are active and proposed in other markets to enable other Industry 4.0 applications. BAI applied for this spectrum as part of the initial allocation window in May 2024, with the outcome confirmed in November.
