The World Radiocommunication Conference, which took place in Geneva last week, concluded with the adoption of an international treaty to increase the spectrum available for mobile broadband services.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) adopted a proposal led by African Governments to identify a swathe of UHF spectrum for the provision of mobile broadband services in developing countries and rural areas of the developed world.

Europe, the Middle East and Asia are now on board with the proposal, allocating the same 790-862MHz band as Africa, while the Americas identified 108MHz (698-862MHz) of UHF spectrum for this purpose.

Industry watchers called the move an important step towards closing the digital divide between those with access to broadband and those without.

Much of this UHF spectrum will be reserved for mobile broadband services, while a chunk of spectrum in the higher frequency bands – 3.4GHz to 3.6GHz – will create the capacity required for the next generation of advanced mobile services.

“This decision by the WRC is an important step towards enabling hundreds of millions of people in the developing world and rural parts of the developed world to gain affordable access to broadband services,” said Tom Phillips, chief Government & Regulatory Affairs officer at industry body, the GSMA.  “Radio signals in the UHF spectrum will travel further than signals in the higher bands, enabling future mobile broadband networks to reach as far as 2G networks do today.”