3UK reveals it could strike agreement with Everything Everywhere

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.

Everything Everywhere has appealed to Ofcom for permission to re-farm its existing 1800MHz spectrum in order launch LTE services by the end of the year. If successful it could establish a significant lead over its competitors.

However, the MBNL 3G network that it uses is co-owned by 3UK, and Dyson suggested that the nature of the two firms’ relationship might be extendable to include LTE.

“We’ve got an opportunity to potentially wholesale capacity from that LTE network, but we haven’t come to any definitive financial terms,” said Dyson. “There could be a way of getting access to [Everything Everywhere’s LTE] network, which the other networks – O2 and Vodafone – don’t have.”

Dyson added that if Everything Everywhere were the only player to be offering LTE before dedicated spectrum is allocated, the market would become uncompetitive. “The sooner this country gets into the next level of technology, the better it will be for consumers, provided there is competition. I think that’s the bit that is missing from Everything Everywhere’s campaign. Given that it’s the biggest player in the market, with that proposition, I’m not sure it’s in the best interest of consumers – it gives them a head start.”

Everything Everywhere has commissioned research to back its bid to launch 4G services in the UK this year

UK operator Everything Everywhere is campaigning for permission to launch 4G services before its domestic competitors. To support its plea to regulator Ofcom, the operator has commissioned research that outlines the “significant economic and social benefits” that will come about by bringing 4G to the UK.

According to the research, conducted by macroeconomic research consultancy Capital Economics, 4G rollout will attract £5.5bn private investment into the UK economy, create or safeguard 125,000 jobs and add 0.5 per cent to the country’s GDP by the end of the decade (or £7.5bn per annum). In addition, 4G will provide access to mobile superfast broadband to at least 10 million people who won’t be able to get fixed line superfast broadband before 2020, the research claims.

The operator, formed by the merger in the UK between T-Mobile and Orange, is in a position to offer 4G mobile services in the UK by the end of 2012, after Ofcom initially accepted an application to use its existing 1800MHz spectrum to deliver LTE services.

However, Vodafone, O2 and 3UK are waiting until Ofcom’s 800MHz and 2.6GHz auction, due to be held later this year, in order to gain the spectrum necessary to roll out their LTE services, and are opposing Everything Everywhere’s attempts to roll out LTE services ahead of the auction.

“The research shows that rolling out 4G will kick start a new cycle of investment and innovation in internet services and mobile devices for consumers, and productivity benefits for businesses,” said Mark Pragnell of Capital Economics, the report’s author. “It also shows how giving Britain a world class digital infrastructure will make it more globally competitive and attract new business start-ups.”

Matthew Howett, practice leader for regulation at research firm Ovum believes Ofcom is right to be considering the option of allowing Everything Everywhere to use its existing spectrum to roll out LTE services, but warned that consumers will only see the true benefit if there is competition between operators in the provision of services.

“This can only be fully achieved through the joint award of spectrum at 800MHz and 2.6GHz planned for the end of this year,” he said.

“With no obvious way out of the deadlock any legal challenge could send everyone back to the drawing board. Only a direction from the UK government could keep the auction on track and this is something that it must now wake up to.”

He added that if pressure mounts on Ofcom to allow Everything Everywhere to use its existing 1800MHz now for 4G then it has to consider how to safeguard competition, and stated that the regulator has at least a couple of options:

“It could consider imposing a wholesale access obligation on Everything Everywhere to allow other interested operators the opportunity to also launch services. This could be removed once the award of new spectrum eventually takes place. However this would not be quick or easy.

“Alternatively competition could come from whoever acquires the 1800MHz spectrum that Everything Everywhere must divest, which was one of the conditions of allowing T-Mobile and Orange to merge in the first place. At the moment the other operators do not hold sufficient quantities of 1800MHz spectrum to launch 4G in any compelling way.  This would require Ofcom preventing Everything Everywhere deploying 4G at 1800MHz until it has completed the sale of this spectrum.”

He added that neither of these two options are ideal, which makes the importance of proceeding with the joint award of new spectrum at 800MHz and 2.6GHz later this year that more important.

However, Nicholas Ott, MD for Arqiva’s government, mobile and enterprise, stated that the UK is already running later than other EU countries in rolling out its 4G services, and revealed that Ofcom is under pressure from the EU to begin provisioning the launch of 4G services as soon as possible.

“Brussels has given direction to all European regulators to allow the refarming of the 900MHz and 1800MHz spectrums for 4G. One year ago, it allowed refarming from 2G to 3G, and now it is saying the same for 4G.”

“Ofcom has an obligation to answer to Brussels. If Ofcom believes it will not be fair or relevant to allow Everything Everywhere to use its existing spectrum, it would have to have a very robust case to say to Brussels that it is not going to do it now, but will postpone it instead.”

Ott argued that that the direction from the EU is not about allowing Everything Everywhere to refarm its 1800MHz spectrum for 4G, but to allow 900MHz and 1800MHz spectrums to be refarmed for 4G. He said that there is nothing to prevent O2 and Vodafone from refarming part of their 900MHz spectrum in 4G.

“The technology is available – there is commercially open 900MHz LTE services in Sweden. Vendors such as NSN, Ericsson, Huawei and ZTE will all tell you that 4G 900MHz is available – it may not be quite as advanced as 1800MHz services, but it is still LTE.”

However, Ovum’s Howett cautioned that in the UK, the 900MHz band is currently congested with 3G services and would have to be freed up, which would put off operators from using the spectrum to launch LTE services.

This makes the Future of Mobile 2012 Westminster e-Forum sound a little more dramatic than it was – nobody threw any chairs, or punches, and the tone was collegial throughout – but it was certainly fascinating to see O2, Everything Everywhere and Three discuss the impending 4G auction and proposals to let Everything Everywhere launch 4G over its existing 1800MHz spectrum.

David Dyson, Three’s CEO, called on Ofcom to reinstate a guarantee for access to sub-1GHz spectrum. This guarantee, which had been included in last year’s first consultation document but was missing from the second consultation released in January, would have helped Three get a portion of the 800 and 900MHz spectrum that Vodafone and O2 currently hold; lower frequencies would improve Three’s coverage and signal strength by quite a bit.

Naturally, Nicholas Blades, who heads Telefonica O2 UK’s bid team, was less enthralled by the idea of his company losing some of its low-frequency spectrum to a rival. He did agree, however, with Dyson’s concerns about Everything Everywhere getting to launch 4G before all the other operators, framing his argument in terms of “haves” and “have-nots”.

Meanwhile, Everything Everywhere’s Kip Meek defended his company’s plan to roll out LTE using the existing 1800MHz spectrum by saying it is inappropriate to deny LTE access to customers when so much of the rest of Europe has it, and attributing the disagreement to fundamental clashing economic interests between operators. Meek had his own suggestions for Ofcom, saying the regulator should “step back” and simplify the auction; the company has had to divest some of its existing 1800MHz spectrum, and Meek said the regulator had made this process more complicated too.

The morning’s first session was a little less contentious, focusing as it did on m-commerce, mobile payments and NFC. The most interesting discussion in this session came from Russell Sheffield, of Paythru, whose m-commerce platform is designed to allow secure financial transactions over customers’ mobiles. A drawback of existing m-commerce services, Sheffield suggested, was that they rely too much on changing customer behavior – not all retailers will be willing or able to add NFC card readers to their shops, nor will all customers be willing to load money onto a mobile wallet, if it requires the extra step of moving their money from their bank account. Paythru calls its solution frictionless, as it is designed to work across all handsets, networks and banks, without requiring special card readers or apps to be installed.

Of course, m-commerce is a sector where most of the UK’s operators have already set aside their differences, given that Everything Everywhere, O2 and Vodafone have teamed for a joint venture to enable mobile payments and mobile marketing. Just don’t expect the arguments about spectrum allocations to be resolved so easily.

Ofcom wants the UK to use 700MHz spectrum for mobile broadband

Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, has proposed that 700MHz spectrum could be refarmed from digital TV and used for mobile broadband instead, in order to cope with the expected demand for data. However, in its view, this is unlikely to happen until 2018, due to the need to establish European wide agreement.

The regulator made the suggestions in a newly released consultation document on the long term strategy for spectrum use. The document highlights the need to come up with strategies to solve the expected data crunch, with estimates for the increase demand for data between now and 2030 ranging from 80-fold to 300-fold.

The report suggests that there are several ways that operators can deal with this; such as moving to more efficient technologies such as LTE, offloading to wifi, employing femtocells and simply building more mobile basestations.

It also suggests the use of more low frequency spectrum, and suggests that using 700MHz would be the most attractive option as it is already being used in the US for LTE and is being planned for in Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

The spectrum is currently occupied in the UK by digital TV transmissions, but Ofcom says that spectrum could be freed up by the implementation of more efficient compression techniques and by moving TV broadcasts to 600MHz.

The closing date for responses to the consultation in 7 June 2012.

The move to 700MHz for LTE in the UK will come too late for buyers of the new iPad, many of whom were disappointed to learn that their new device will not work on planned LTE networks, which will be based on 800, 1800 and 2600MHz spectrum.

The issue came to a head in Australia, after Apple was forced to offer refunds to disgruntled consumers following complaints to the ASA, the country’s advertising watchdog.

Ofcom has recently approved the use of refarmed 1800MHz spectrum by Orange, who plans to use it to launch LTE commercially in the UK by the end of 2012, much to the indignation of its rivals.

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UK operators have hit out at Ofcom's proposals to allow Everything Everywhere to begin offering LTE services before competitors

The UK’s mobile operators have hit out at Ofcom’s latest proposals to allow Everything Everywhere to use its existing 1800MHz spectrum to offer LTE services ahead of its competitors.

Earlier this month, Ofcom accepted an application from Everything Everywhere , which would see the firm offering 4G mobile services in the UK by the end of 2012 using its existing spectrum. Meanwhile, Vodafone, O2 and 3UK would have to wait until Ofcom’s 4G auction in order to gain the spectrum necessary to roll out their LTE services, the first stages of which are on course to begin “by the end of 2012”, according to Ofcom.

The regulator had stated that interested parties have four weeks in which to submit their views on the proposal, and Everything Everywhere’s competitors have now voiced their discontent.

O2 said the move is contradictory to Ofcom’s objective of delivering a competitive market environment with four competing players.

“From the very start of this process, Ofcom has said that the UK must retain a competitive market environment and that it will remove the ability for operators to behave strategically over spectrum allocation,” said an O2 spokesman.

The spokesman added that, to this end, Ofcom’s auction proposals had much to commend them, and the firm was minded to support a small spectrum reservation for Hutchison or a new entrant, if Ofcom could make a stronger case for four players.

“However, we are concerned that Ofcom’s other proposal to allow one operator to launch 4G early on its existing spectrum is contradictory to its objective of delivering a competitive market environment with four competing players,” he said, adding that the firm had concerns that once Everything Everywhere was in a position to offer LTE services, it could attempt to delay the 4G auction, while it had a monopoly position for LTE in the UK.

Vodafone UK CEO Guy Laurence accused Ofcom of “taking leave of its senses”, by accepting the application from Everything Everywhere.

“The regulator has always stressed that competition is in the best interests of consumers and the British economy, yet here it is all but agreeing to grant the largest player in the market a headstart on the next generation of mobile internet services,” he said.

“This decision leaves Everything Everywhere free to prevent anyone else from launching 4G services, by bogging next year’s auction down in endless litigation.”

Meanwhile, 3UK is understood to be discussing its stance in London today, but Matthew Howett, analyst at Ovum, believes the operator would be up in arms over the decision.

“Three are likely to be most critical of Ofcom’s proposal given their on-going battle with Ofcom over what they see as the regulator’s failure to properly consider the unequal sub 1GHz spectrum holdings during Ofcom’s implementation of the EC’s liberalisation decision,” he said.

“The moment is coming when it’s in the interests of all parties to let that award happen sooner rather than later. If the plan to auction the spectrum in Q4 2012 goes ahead then we could see widespread availability of LTE in the UK by the end of 2013.”

Ofcom has responded to the concerns by allowing the operators more time to submit their opinions in writing, from 17 April 2012 until 8 May 2012.

“We have decided to extend this period following requests from stakeholders for more time to respond,” the regulator said.

Ofcom's attempts to cut MTRs have been sped up despite operators' appeals

The UK Competition Commission has brought forward the deadline for when mobile operators will be forced to slash mobile termination rates (MTRs) for connecting calls from other networks or fixed lines.

UK regulator Ofcom said in March 2011 that MTRs should be cut from just over 4p per minute in 2010 to less than 0.65p per minute by 2015. Operators Everything Everywhere and Vodafone lodged an appeal with the Competition Appeals Tribunal (CAT) against this decision  with support from Telefonica O2.

However, the appeal has backfired and the CAT has said that it believes Ofcom had not gone far enough, and ruled that the charges should be brought down by 2014, rather than 2015.

Vodafone has criticised the decision to increase the speed at which mobile termination rates must fall, saying it will harm consumers.

“We are very disappointed that the Competition Commission considers that deep cuts in MTRs are necessary because it will further harm consumers,” the operator said in a statement. “We warned Ofcom at the time of its original decision that drastic cuts in termination rates would disenfranchise many consumers who rely on their phones to keep in touch with friends and family. Ofcom’s decision is making it unsustainable for the mobile phone companies to continue subsidising the high cost of mobile handsets for pay as you go users, meaning that they are out of the reach of many people. There has already been evidence from some High Street electronics retailers that this is happening.

“It is particularly galling to see the Commission’s position given that many of the fixed-line operators have merely pocketed previous reductions in mobile termination rates, instead of reducing prices for customers. BT, meanwhile, has actually increased its line rental prices three times over the past year and a half. The CC’s findings are lengthy and complex and we will need to review the situation fully before deciding on our next steps.”

UK broadband prices could drop after regulator announces wholesale price cut

The UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has said it will be forcing down the prices that Openreach, the wholesale division of incumbent BT, can charge for broadband and telephone rental. However, BT intends to contest the decision.

The proposed charge controls would reduce the cost of a “fully unbundled line” from £91.50 to £87.41, while a shared unbundled line, where an ISP uses the line just to provide broadband, would drop from £14.70 to £11.92. The cost for phone rental services would drop from £103.68 to £98.81.

Ofcom said it has provided the European Commission with a draft of its decision, which it deems necessary due to Openreach’s significant market power. The charges would be imposed for the 2012/13 financial year and would run until 31 March 2014. Prices could decrease further in line with the Retail Price Index. The charges will only kick-in once they have been approved by the European Commission, which Ofcom said would occur in March.

How this will affect consumers is unclear as the Ofcom proposals do not force the purchasers of Openreach’s wholesale services to pass on savings to their customers. If they do however, it could mean customers of Openreach based broadband would see price drops.

However, BT has hit back at Ofcom over the decision, issuing a statement of its intentions, which could include appealing the decision.

“We disagree with some of the underlying assumptions that they have used to determine these charge controls. Our primary concern throughout this process is to ensure that we are able to achieve a fair rate of return in order to continue our investment in the future of the UK’s communications infrastructure,” read the statement.

“We will consider all options available to us, including appealing, after Ofcom confirms its final decisions.”

Last week, Openreach announced that it would make Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) services available in six locations in the UK from late October, making download speeds of up to 110Mbps available, with 300Mbps upgrades coming by spring 2013.

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London will host 2012's Olympics

UK regulator Ofcom has outlined plans to temporarily use spectrum from the public sector to cope with increased demand for airwaves during the London 2012 Olympics.

The authority said that it will borrow spectrum on a short-term basis from the Ministry of Defence and other public sector bodies, make unused frequencies available, such as the spectrum that will shortly be auctioned by Ofcom, but is currently not being used, and will use spectrum made available by the country’s digital television switchover, as well as spectrum that is available without the need for a licence.

The body anticipates an increase in demand for bandwidth, caused by increased use of wireless cameras to achieve more dramatic and close-up action shots, more wireless microphones to add flexibility in capturing the sounds of the Games, wireless location, timing and scoring technology to give more detailed and immediate information about the event as it happens and wireless communications used by team members, sports officials, organisers and support staff.

In addition, sports commentaries will be distributed wirelessly to the venue audience for the benefit of hearing and visually impaired spectators and the use of wireless communications by security and emergency staff will be use to keep everyone at the event safe.

The decision to borrow spectrum from public bodies and use temporarily available airwaves was arrived at because spectrum within London is already being used at full capacity for many applications that will be used at the London 2012 Games, Ofcom said.

“In preparation for the increased demand for spectrum during the Games, Ofcom has been running a series of test events during 2011 and 2012. These have taken place at high profile events such as the royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey, the Formula 1 Grand Prix at Silverstone and the Sail for Gold event at Weymouth,” the body said in a statement. Ofcom will also be responsible for managing the airwaves during the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, which will take place in June this year.

Ofcom has also built a state-of-the-art spectrum assignment system that will manage access to spectrum, keeping it free for those who need it and free from interference, in order to ensure spectrum is efficiently used, carefully allocated and to ensure that interference is minimised. The regulator will also be deploying an especially large team of radio engineers to track down and deal with any cases of interference that do occur.

“The UK’s airwaves are already among the most intensively used in the world. The London 2012 Games will significantly increase demand,” said Ofcom’s chief operating officer, Jill Ainscough.

“Ready and prepared for this challenge, Ofcom recognises that there is no room for complacency. We are working behind the scenes to make this capacity available, to ensure that this demand is met.”

Ofcom has proposed revised plans for the UK 4G auction scheduled for the end of the year

UK regulator Ofcom has announced revised plans to promote competition in the country ahead of the country’s 4G spectrum auction.

The spectrum in the 800MHz band that is becoming available, freed up from the nationwide switchover from analogue to digital TV,  is equivalent to three quarters of the mobile spectrum in use today. The refarmed 800MHz band will be auctioned along with higher frequency airwaves in the 2.6GHz band at the end of 2012.

Ofcom believes that consumers are likely to receive better services at lower prices in the future if there are at least four operators in the market and without the right quality and mix of spectrum, an operator might struggle to compete with other national wholesale providers. So ahead of the second round of consultation with telcos, Telecoms.com takes a look at the impact Ofcom’s revised plans will have on operators in the UK.

Everything Everywhere

Everything Everywhere, the company formed by the merger of T-Mobile and Orange in the UK, currently has no spectrum in the 900MHz band, but owns a lot of spectrum in the 1800MHz bands, which it is currently using for 2G services.

When the two firms decided to merge, the European Commission (EC) assessed the merger and one of the conditions  proposed in order for the deal to get the go-ahead was that the operator had to give up some of the 1800MHz spectrum that the two firms owned – a total of 2x15MHz of 1800MHz spectrum.

Ofcom had previously said that it would guarantee both Everything Everywhere and 3UK, or a new entrant to the market, sub-1GHz spectrum in order for them to deploy LTE. However, the new proposals see the regulator withdraw that guarantee from Everything Everywhere.

“Ofcom had to do something to make everyone else happier and Everything Everywhere less happy, so that they could get this through without legal challenge,” said Matthew Howett, analyst at Ovum.

“On balance, Ofcom decided that Everything Everywhere’s holding of 1800MHz is sufficient for the operator to use in order to deploy LTE, rather than worry about it getting access to 800MHz for that. Ofcom has said it believes the benefits of operating LTE at 1800MHz, in some instances, are higher than operating at 800MHz. That’s because 1800MHz allows more capacity, which is important.”

Of course the operator itself was not happy to hear the news and a spokesperson told Telecoms.com: “Everything Everywhere is very disappointed to see that Ofcom has again reversed its proposal to ensure all mobile operators hold a minimum amount of sub 1GHz spectrum. Ofcom is missing a huge opportunity for the UK to address the imbalance in sub 1GHz spectrum holdings, which has damaged consumer interests for the last 20 years, and is a situation which is now threatening to continue.”

The company argued that the importance of sub 1GHz spectrum has been recognised by other regulators across Europe and supported by economic analysis.

“All of the regulators bar Ofcom have made vigorous efforts to support healthy and sustainable competition by ensuring that the imbalance of sub 1GHz holdings is redressed,” said the spokesperson.

However, it should be stressed that things could yet change if Everything Everywhere decides to divest its 1800MHz spectrum before the auction, rather than during it.

According to Howett: “If this spectrum is auctioned before the joint award of 800MHz and 2.6GHz it could remove the need for any spectrum reservation. This is not insignificant given the growing interest in launching LTE at 1800MHz.”

3UK

3UK is likely to be quite happy with the new proposals because either it or potentially a new entrant to the market, is guaranteed spectrum in the sub 1GHz band. However, if 3UK, or a new entrant acquires some of the 1800MHz from Everything Everywhere before the spectrum auction, Ofcom would not necessarily guarantee them spectrum in the 800MHz band.

“It’s up to 3UK to decide whether it values spectrum in the 1800MHz band more than the 800MHz band and decide whether it participates in the bidding of Everything Everywhere’s 1800MHz band before the auction,” said Howett.

“It needs to spend time doing cost benefit analysis to find out what works for its business. However, if a new entrant comes along and secures some 1800MHz spectrum, which is not very likely but still a risk nonetheless, 3UK can mitigate the risk by bidding for 1800MHz or by bidding aggressively for 800MHz. Ofcom can’t be any more fair to 3UK than it is being.”

O2 and Vodafone

Vodafone and O2 are likely to be the happiest to hear of Ofcom’s revised proposals. Everything Everywhere has been disadvantaged by the revisions, and there has been no decision by Ofcom to take back any 900MHz spectrum from the two companies.

A Vodafone spokesperson told Telecoms.com that the revisions bring the UK closer to a “fair and open auction that will benefit the wider economy, increase competition and ultimately lead to the creation of innovative new services for consumers”.

However, the firm said that it still does not completely understand the regulator’s rationale for protecting a fourth operator.

The spokesperson also outlined its plans for rolling out LTE, and suggested that the company will be ready to roll out the technology when bidding is over.

“In the UK, Vodafone has already moved well beyond the testing phase for 4G. We have run three trials of the technology in the UK over the last three years and the international team of engineers who launched Vodafone’s 4G network in Germany over a year ago are already in this country, working closely with our own technical specialists.”

So, Ofcom has been in an unenviable position to try to remain fair to each of the operators but also promote competition and conclude the auction as speedily as possible. However, according to Howett, the regulator has not done a bad job.

“The decisions Ofcom takes now are likely to affect the level of competition in the sector for at least a decade. Striking a balance was never going to be easy. The set of proposals now on the table appear to leave everyone with something to be optimistic about, but at the same time requires compromises to be made. Perhaps Ofcom have got it right?”

Ofcom outlines new proposals to get 4G to rural areas

UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has outlined new proposals to extend 4G coverage to at least 98 per cent of the population.

Last year, Ofcom proposed that a condition should be attached to one of the 800MHz licences up for grabs, which would oblige the holder to roll out a 4G network that provides coverage to 95 per cent of the UK population.

Now, following news that the government will invest £150m to boost mobile coverage in areas with poor or no mobile service – with part of that figure to be spent on building new mobile infrastructure in areas where there is little or no commercial incentive for operators to do so – Ofcom believes that this condition can be strengthened in one of two ways.

The first option is to increase the obligation for coverage to 98 per cent of the UK population. The second and, in Ofcom’s view a potentially more effective option, is to require that one of the 800MHz spectrum licenses has a condition that forces the buyer to provide 4G coverage that not only matches existing 2G coverage but also extends into mobile ‘not spot’ areas of the UK where the £150m will provide infrastructure capable of supporting 4G coverage.

This may have the potential to extend 4G mobile coverage even further than to 98 per cent of the population, according to Ofcom.

“This second option would make it more likely that mobile broadband services would be provided in locations where they could be most valued by consumers, rather than in those areas where it is easiest for a licensee to meet the obligation,” the regulator wrote in a statement.

Arqiva owns all of the UK’s terrestrial TV and radio networks and around 20 per cent of the mobile network infrastructure in the country. It will likely play a major role in getting 4G to not-spots in the UK, as it aims to act as a neutral host for operators to provide broadband, and hopes to give a choice of providers to those living in rural areas. Alastair Davidson, director of mobile, said he was very encouraged by Ofcom’s proposal, hailing it as a “significant milestone”.

However, he suggested that Ofcom should make sure the 98 per cent coverage obligation is applied to all the operators who win 800 MHz spectrum.

“If Ofcom decides to place the coverage obligation on only one operator, many consumers in rural areas will receive a second-tier broadband service, denied the benefits of competition available to those who live elsewhere,” he said.

But he added: “This auction provides an opportunity for the whole country to benefit from high-speed data networks and we very much hope that it can now proceed without further delay.” The UK is trailing behind many other mature markets, especially in Europe, that have already auctioned 4G spectrum.