Vodafone UK said it plans to increase spending on its LTE network by as much as 50% in an attempt to launch services by late summer. The company added that the spending would include both wireless and wireline assets, citing its recent acquisition of fixed communications provider Cable & Wireless Worldwide.
Vodafone UK noted that it was now on track to spend nearly $1.4 billion on its network this year, not including the $1.2 billion the company spent on spectrum during the country’s recent spectrum auction. That haul included 20 megahertz of spectrum in the 800 MHz band, 40 megahertz in the 2.6 GHz band and 25 megahertz of unpaired spectrum in the 2.6 GHz band. Analysts noted at that time that Vodafone UK needed to be aggressive in acquiring spectrum in order to regain market share in the country’s hotly contested mobile space.
“Just four years ago, in 2009, Vodafone had a lock on the second-place ranking in the U.K. wireless market, slightly behind leader O2,” said Daniel Gleeson, mobile media analyst at IHS, in a research note following the auction. “However, the merger of Orange and T-Mobile into Everything Everywhere relegated Vodafone to third place, several million subscriptions behind the top market player. By leading the way in spectrum spending, Vodafone has made a statement it intends to reclaim its former position in the market.”
Vodafone UK explained that it planned to deliver indoor LTE coverage to 98% of the country’s population by 2015, which was a caveat instituted by government regulator Ofcom for the 800 MHz spectrum licenses, though Ofcom is requiring that level of coverage by 2017.
Vodafone UK rival Everything Everywhere, which is a joint venture between France Telecom’s Orange and Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile brands formed in 2010, was the first to launch LTE services in the country last year. That launched used the carrier’s 1.8 GHz spectrum holdings that were originally restricted for use by GSM-based offerings, though Everything Everywhere recently gained government approval to use a portion of that spectrum for its LTE service. Early last year EE commissioned a report that found rollout of LTE services could result in Britain garnering nearly $9 billion in direct private investments by 2015 and create or safeguard up to 125,000 jobs.
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