Spectrum 101

You can't see, hear or smell it but electromagnetic energy surrounds us. It can pass easily through the earth and space and through us, as though we aren't even there and without it, modern life just wouldn't be possible. This speedy invisible messenger is highly sought after by industry, government and the public. But what exactly is this mysterious energy that makes our busy lives possible? Radio waves are a combination of electrical and magnetic waves at right angles to each other and they just propagate out and they expand like the skin on a balloon as you blow them up. They essentially go forever though, but they get very very thin as they get further and further away. The spectrum is made up of the frequencies that these waves oscillate at. So from very low frequencies, a few kilohertz, to very very high frequencies, many many gigahertz. The same thing that you can see, your eyes interpret as color from various objects, is the same sort of medium that is transmitted through your mobile phones and all that stuff. It's just that we can't detect it through our eyes. Anything, basically, that's wireless and is sending a signal from one place to another works on the radiofrequency spectrum. Radio, for example, 104.7 is 104.7 MHz and triple six is 666 KHz. So those numbers aren't... actually mean something. They're not plucked out of thin air. With all the hi-tech gadgets needed to use the spectrum, it's easy to forget that radio waves are a naturally occurring resource, like water or coal. That means it belongs to all of us. Like other natural resources, radio spectrum is scarce. It's a natural resource because it exists. So you have a certain number of these frequencies that you can use. It's unlike coal, because you can use it and then switch off your radio transmitter and then somebody else can use it. So we refer to it as a finite, so it has limits, but renewable resource. You can use it and then you can use it again. If you think about it, pretty much every piece of technology we now use has some reliance on radio. That's a lot of devices, using a lot of waves. Harbour control, harbour control. This is H20 Taxis. H20 Taxis on channel 1313. Take these guys, a water taxi company operating on Sydney Harbour. On just one boat, he's operating a VHF marine radio, several mobile phones, a digital television with its wireless remote, of course, a GPS and even a Wi-Fi connection for the passengers. All this, on a busy working harbour, surrounded by other vessels and suburbs that are even hungrier for radio spectrum. How is this harmony possible in a crowded radio spectrum with literally millions of competing users? Given that spectrum is a finite resource, there's a possibility that if two people use the same part of that resource, they can't deliver their same data or the same requirements. So therefore, they'll start to interfere with each other. And that what managed spectrum avoids. Certain bands are better for certain things. So the bands that we're currently calling the digital dividend, are beach side spectrum or beach front spectrum as it's called because they can carry large bandwidth and they can propagate over large distances so they're really good for people that roam around with iPads, iPhones, tablets, things like that. You need to plan who uses what number, effectively, to make sure that everyone who wants to use it, can use it. And coordinating all that is a truly global effort. It's no good for a country that's small like Australia to come up with its own method of managing spectrum because then, all of the cheap equipment that you buy that's made in the United States or Japan or Korea, can't be used here. So we have to standardise it internationally. When all the pieces of the spectrum puzzle fit together the result is a well-managed spectrum world. A well-managed spectrum world enables different users to operate at the same time. You get up in the morning, you press your garage door opener, your garage door opens. You press your car key and your car door opens. You get in your car, you drive down the road the toll gate picks up, the signal for the bleep in your car. You get a speeding ticket by way of radar and a camera which transmits its image digitally to the police. You get to work, you pick up your iPad or your iPhone or whatever it is you use to download data and that works. You look at the television, you get a crisp clear picture. You go home, again, you're looking at the television or listening to the radio, your picture is crisp and clear. People using their mobile phones, using their internet on their wireless at home, using their Bluetooth in their cars. We can still have the toll operators running. We can have the policemen and emergency services using their 2-way radio. And everyone works in harmony because it's well planned to minimise interference. But without careful spectrum management, our world is a very different place. Hello? You there? A badly managed spectrum world is where nobody looks after any of that stuff. So an American ship comes and docks in Sydney Harbour and it opens your garage door for you, three or four times a minute. You press the bleep on your car door opener and it doesn't work anymore because it's interfering with somebody else's car door opener or even worse, somebody else presses their bleep and your car door opens and they steal your car. You go to pick up your iPad, you don't get data. It says: 'Network signal lost.' You look on the television and all you get is nothing, because in a digital television world, it's either something or nothing. And you go home to listen to your radio and you constantly get a flip flop between two different radio stations. That's a badly managed spectrum world. It would be chaotic. You know, nothing would work. Life as we know it wouldn't work. Spectrum management is essential to the digital economy. Smooth spectrum function not only translates directly as an easier modern life for you, but also into dollars and cents. Telecommunications is a multi-billion dollar industry as is television and radio. And each one of those rely on a clear signal. So to ensure the quality of service to you, from your radio program, your television program, your mobile phone or your iPad data machine, we've got to manage the radiofrequency spectrum so that you receive the good service, you receive value for money from that spectrum. One spectrum,