The United Kingdom took a step closer to next-generation mobile broadband services as the country’s regulatory body said it would begin looking at allowing current mobile providers to tap into their 2G and 3G spectrum holdings to offer LTE-based services.
Traditionally, European countries have tied specific spectrum bands to network technologies, which resulted in the so-called “2G” and “3G” spectrum auctions. However, as plans to auction off “4G” spectrum are not expected in the near term and consumer demand for such services is spiking, Ofcom said it has released a proposal that would allow LTE services to be launched using 2G and 3G spectrum as early as this year.
The move follows an announcement last month from Everything Everywhere – a joint venture between German Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile and France Telecom’s Orange – that laid out its plans for LTE services it expected to have commercially launched later this year. The carrier is currently trialing LTE services using its 800 MHz spectrum holdings in Cornwall, with plans to add a trial using its 1.8 GHz spectrum assets in the Bristol area in April.
“Allowing Everything Everywhere to reuse its spectrum in this way is likely to bring material benefits to consumers, including faster mobile broadband speeds and – depending on how Everything Everywhere uses the spectrum – potentially wider mobile broadband coverage in rural areas,” Ofcom noted in a statement. “Ofcom has considered whether allowing Everything Everywhere to use this spectrum in this way would distort competition, and provisionally concluded that it would not. And given the benefits this would bring to consumers, Ofcom is minded to allow this change of use.”
Everything Everywhere rival O2 began LTE trials across portions of London late last year using 2.6 GHz spectrum under a “test and development” license from Ofcom.
Ofcom has said it expects to auction off 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz spectrum later this year to support LTE rollouts. The 800 MHz spectrum is to be re-farmed from the country’s move to digital television, with proposals that would require spectrum license winners to provide LTE coverage to match that of current 2G networks. The government has said it would look into helping fund the rollout of LTE to underserved areas of the country.
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