Ofcom announce new licence winners of 4G auction
Ofcom has today announced four new licence holders for 4G.
Hutchison 3G UK Ltd, Nice Spectrum Ventures (a subsidiary of BT Group plc), Telefónica UK Ltd (O2) and Vodafone Ltd have won the Ofcom 4G mobile spectrum auction and will now be licenced to provide 4G coverage to their customers.
Everything Everywhere Ltd, the first operator to offer 4G in late 2012, has also secured extra spectrum in the latest round of bidding. The T-Mobile and Orange joint venture has struggled to attract users, however, leading it to cut its prices in January.
The 4G mobile spectrum auction was the biggest sale of British airwaves in over a decade, with Vodafone leading the bids at almost £791 million. A total of £2.34 billion was raised in the auction – a third less than the Treasury was hoping to make.
The auction has otherwise achieved Ofcom’s purpose of promoting strong competition in the 4G mobile market. This is expected to lead to faster mobile broadband speeds, lower prices, greater innovation, new investment and better coverage. Almost the whole UK population will be able to receive 4G mobile services by the end of 2017 at the latest.
Ed Richards, Ofcom Chief Executive, said: “This is a positive outcome for competition in the UK, which will lead to faster and more widespread mobile broadband, and substantial benefits for consumers and businesses across the country. We are confident that the UK will be among the most competitive markets in the world for 4G services.
“4G coverage will extend far beyond that of existing 3G services, covering 98% of the UK population indoors – and even more when outdoors – which is good news for parts of the country currently under-served by mobile broadband.”
Commenting on the news, Matthew Howett, telecoms regulation analyst at Ovum said that despite five years of planning and tens of thousands of pages of consultations, in many ways today is just the beginning.
“The hard part for operators now comes in convincing us to upgrade and take out 4G mobile subscriptions,” he said. “[However,] a lack of detail from EE on how many customers they have tempted over to 4G has led some to believe that consumers just aren’t willing to pay more for faster speeds.”
By 2030, demand for mobile data could be 80 times higher than today. To help meet this demand and avert a possible ‘capacity crunch’, more mobile spectrum is needed over the long term, together with new technologies to make mobile broadband more efficient. Ofcom is planning now to support the release of further spectrum for possible future ‘5G’ mobile services.