A new era of faster mobile internet access was signalled today, as the communications regulator Ofcom said it was ready to kick off the £5 billion sale of another chunk of the nation’s airwaves later this year.
Billed as the largest-ever auction of spectrum, it will be fiercely fought-over by mobile phone operators, who have already held up the auction process for three years with the threat of legal challenges. The simmering row has meant Britain has fallen behind many other countries in installing high-speed 4G networks.
Ofcom is selling off the airwaves that until this year carried the analogue TV signal. They can be converted for use by operators such as Vodafone and O2 to boost networks that are under pressure from the extra bandwidth consumed by smartphones such as iPhones and BlackBerrys.
The auction will offer the equivalent of three-quarters of the mobile spectrum in use today. Ofcom has set a £1.4 billion reserve price, but it is expected to raise closer to £5 billion, making it the most valuable asset sold by the government in this Parliament. However, the price will still be dwarfed by the £22.5 billion that poured into Treasury coffers from the auction of 3G licences in 2000.
The main tweak to Ofcom’s proposals is to reserve some spectrum for a fourth national operator other than Vodafone, Orange owner Everything Everywhere and O2. That is good news for 3, part of Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa, but it must still do battle with new entrants to the market which could include BT trying to return to the mobile world. Ed Richards, Ofcom’s chief executive, said: “The 4G auction has been designed to deliver the maximum possible benefit to consumers and citizens across the UK. As a direct result of the measures Ofcom is introducing, consumers will be able to surf the web, stream videos and download email attachments on their mobile device from almost every home in the UK.”
