Ofcom has announced the winners of the 4G mobile spectrum auction. Following over 50 rounds of bidding; “Everything Everywhere Ltd, Hutchison 3G UK Ltd, Niche Spectrum Ventures Ltd (a subsidiary of BT Group plc), Telefónica UK Ltd and Vodafone Ltd have all won spectrum.” Ofcom says the result is “suitable” for the purpose of rolling out superfast mobile broadband services to customers and businesses and will promote strong competition in the 4G market.
(Almost) Everyone will get 4G coverage by the end of 2017
Ofcom expects that thanks to the auction end users will get faster, cheaper and more innovative 4G connectivity offerings with better coverage. It predicts that “almost the whole UK population will be able to receive 4G mobile services by the end of 2017 at the latest”.
In a statement 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.” This should be true as currently UK mobile phone contracts are some of the most competitive in the world.
Mr Richards adds that 4G coverage “will extend far beyond that of existing 3G services” and cover 98 per cent of the population indoors. He also said that Ofcom will be conducting research at the end of this year to judge the state of the market and inform mobile customers.
The auction results, a breakdown
|
Winning bidder |
Spectrum won |
Base price |
|
Everything Everywhere Ltd |
2 x 5 MHz of 800 MHz and |
£588,876,000 |
|
Hutchison 3G UK Ltd |
2 x 5 MHz of 800 MHz |
£225,000,000 |
|
Niche Spectrum Ventures Ltd (a subsidiary of BT Group plc) |
2 x 15 MHz of 2.6 GHz and |
£186,476,000 |
|
Telefónica UK Ltd |
2 x 10 MHz of 800 MHz |
£550,000,000 |
|
Vodafone Ltd |
2 x 10 MHz of 800 MHz, |
£790,761,000 |
|
Total |
£2,341,113,000 |
The following bidders were not winning bidders; MLL Telecom Ltd, HKT (UK) Company Ltd.
It is estimated that the winning auction bidders will be able to start rolling out new 4G services “in spring or early summer 2013”.
The Ofcom auction results statement concludes with a reminder of the upcoming possibility of a “capacity crunch”. With the real possibility of mobile data use being 80 times greater than current usage by 2030 Ofcom is now planning to support the release of further spectrum to be used for 5G mobile services.
