Shared spectrum and vRAN – opportunities to shake up the mobile landscape

Shared spectrum lowers barrier to entry for non-MNOs, but it is not enough on its own WiFi has shown there are other key enablers for an open market. In 4G and 5G, some of these are now emerging in cellular small cells – vRAN, vEPC, open interfaces. The new architectures, combined with flexible spectrum policies, are well suited to neutral host models. These will be critical to achieve objectives for 5G in enterprise and IoT use cases. However, there are barriers – how can policy help lower them?