Vodafone claims dynamic spectrum sharing first

The point of DSS is to allow smooth transitioning between 4G and 5G by allowing them to share the same spectrum, dynamically.

Vodafone reckons it’s the first to demonstrate this handy tech over a couple of low frequency bands (700 and 800 MHz). It announced it on a blog late last week, but kept so quiet about it that we only just found out. As if to demonstrate the folly of a complete Huawei ban, the Chinese vendor was involved, but so was Ericsson and, inevitably, Qualcomm.

The specific first was the simultaneous use of two bands on one 5G NSA device. Only the 700 MHz band did any dynamic sharing, however, with the other one used as an ‘anchor’ whatever that means. Light Reading attempted to shed some light on it here. It looks like DSS has never been a thing before, so this is quite a big deal.

Outside of technological milestone gathering, this matters because it should minimise the disruption caused by the switch to 5G. For operators it means that, in terms of spectrum, they don’t have to hold on with one hand before letting go of the other and will effectively make refarming a thing of the past, at least in theory.