The UK’s communications regulator Ofcom has revealed the telcos with the worst customer experience ratings in the country, with Orange generating the most complaints for broadband in the fourth quarter of 2012 and BT receiving the most pay-TV complaints.

Following its review into the causes of bill shock, UK regulator Ofcom has set out an action plan to tackle the problem. The regulator said it will work with the mobile industry on a series of measures to address the main issues identified by the review and if these do not sufficiently reduce damage caused to consumers, Ofcom warned it would consider mandatory options to tackle the problem.

Mobile operators worldwide are still not doing enough to protect customers from bill shock, despite initiatives by trade association the GSMA and national regulators such as Ofcom in the UK and ACMA in Australia to promote transparency in roaming charges. The majority of mobile operators worldwide (62 per cent) have not yet implemented any form of bill-shock prevention, according to research conducted by cloud-based managed communication services provider Mach.

The baseline for the UK’s broadband universal service commitment of 2Mb is too low and should be raised to 10Mb, a director of UK regulator Ofcom has said, according to a report from V3.

Tuesday marks the next important milestone in the UK’s telecoms market as prospective bidders submit applications for 4G spectrum.

Between 10:00 and 16:00 on December 11, 2012, interested parties are able to submit applications, accompanied by an initial deposit of £100,000 into Ofcom’s bank account. The passing of the deadline takes the UK one step closer to the completion of a highly controversial and long-awaited spectrum action, which is expected to be finalised by February or March next year.

The UK’s four mobile network operators have formed a company to speed up the deployment of the 800MHz frequency band vacated by the Digital Switchover. Regulator Ofcom announced early October that the spectrum, which will be used to roll out LTE services will be made usable earlier than planned, following peace talks between the UK government, the nation’s operators and the telecommunications regulator Ofcom.

UK regulator Ofcom has said that there is nothing stopping EE’s rivals, such as Vodafone and O2, from putting in an application to alter their 900MHz spectrum licence for LTE usage. A ruling in early 2011 meant that all operators are now free to use their 2G spectrum for 3G services, so extension of that same ruling to encompass 4G would be a small amend.

UK regulator Ofcom has unveiled plans for the country’s 4G spectrum auction. The UK has lagged other leading markets and Ofcom has revealed that spectrum will be allocated in 2013. Ofcom has set aside spectrum intended to guarantee the presence of four LTE operators in the UK market.

3UK’s CEO David Dyson has suggested that the operator could strike an agreement with Everything Everywhere to launch LTE using the T-Mobile/Orange JV’s spectrum in advance of the UK’s 4G auction.