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So, we finally have a set-in-stone date for the sweet, soothing rays of competitively-priced 4G to hit our shores. The telecoms regulator Ofcom has published the rules for the 4G spectrum auction, giving a timeline for when licenses will be given, and letting us know whenabouts that switch will finally be flipped.
The reserve price for the two chunks of spectrum going under the hammer is £1.3 billion – a steal when you consider the 3G spectrum auction back in 2000 raised a whopping £22.5 billion. The auction should start in early January, and in the run-up there’ll be all sorts of seminars and mock auctions, so that hopefully this time Ofcom won’t take the networks to the cleaners. (To be clear, I don’t have lots of sympathy for the networks — I’m just hoping that lower costs upfront for the networks will mean cheaper plans for us in the long term.)
The actual auction will be held online, though not (sadly) on eBay. The auction procedure is quite complicated, and comes with a whole swathe of paperwork to explain the rules (the actual document runs to 70 pages). All things going well, the actual bidding will start in early January; licences to be granted in February/March, and the networks should go live in May/June 2013.
The way it’s shaping up, it looks like a 2-way tussle between Vodafone and O2 for the 800MHz and 2.6GHz spectrum bands — Everything Everywhere’s already sorted after its launch of 4GEE on the existing 1800MHz spectrum, and since Three bought a chunk of that 1800MHz earlier this year, they shouldn’t be in the mix either. [Ofcom via TechCrunch]
Image credit: Mobile mast from Shutterstock
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I’m just hoping that lower costs upfront for the networks will mean cheaper plans for us in the long term
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well that’s just not going to happen.
would love to see a realistic breakdown of what it actually costs the networks to supply us with out minutes/texts/data
4G is cheaper to run then 3G or even 2G.
Texts don’t cost the network any money to send as they are only send when the networks activity is low.
But haven’t Vodafone and O2 signed a deal to share networks? or was that only with 3G?
I hope Vodafone get the 2.6Ghz spectrum, I want fast 4G, I’m currently on Vodafone and I know O2 will do what they do best and make it really expensive
The 800MHz is the really prized frequency – lower frequencies pass through buildings, trees etc better so should get better coverage. That’s the theory, anyway….
But I am sure I read at the weekend that the 800MHz frequency would interfere with Freeview frequencies near the base transmitters, and you would unlikely get a signal within a mile of one. Also freeview signals would die, and a new piece of equipment would be needed to keep your freeview signal.
Well the networks are banding together to save Freeview apparently
http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2012/10/mobile-networks-work-to-plug-freeview-interference-hole-before-full-4g-launch/
Unlimited data or I don’t care.
What genius thought ‘Hey! We now have mobile broadband capable of faster than landline speeds, and we won’t offer unlimited downloads!’
what a crap article. the costs will go higher than 3G – or close to surely? Reserve price is not the final price. And you have no sympathy for the networks, but you want to spend less for a better service? The costs of rolling out 3G are stil lbeing paid for and God only knows how the 4G costs are going to take to pay back. And of course Three are going to want to be in the auction. A tiny bit of 1800 isn’t enough to run a 4G network on.
correct me if i’m wrong, but surely Vodafone and o2 merging their network will mean that they would bit for the remaining 4G spectrum as a joint party thus bagging it for half price each?
As far as I am aware the agreement was to cover all existing network hardware, so it would not make sense to bid against each other
radio masts and back haul – they would stll need their own spectrum.