4G mobile phone launch ‘before Christmas’ in UK

The new superfast mobile networks from Everything Everywhere could be up and running by the end of the year, communications regulator Ofcom has confirmed.

Everything Everwhere, the owners of Orange and T-Mobile, has applied to Ofcom to be allowed to reuse its existing mobile phone spectrum for the new, faster mobile broadband services.

A four-week consultation will close on 17 April, and Everything Everywhere’s competitors are however expected by some analysts to seek to stop it stealing a march on their own plans.

A Vodafone spokesman said "We share the regulator’s desire to see the next generation of mobile internet services rolled out quickly and placed within the reach of many more people in rural areas. But we seriously doubt that consumers’ best interests will be served by giving one company a significant head start before any of its competitors have a clear path to 4G."

As rival operators do not have suitable spectrum, some sources believe they may equally see it as a way of getting the firm to fund what is likely to be an expensive marketing campaign to educate consumers about what 4G is and what equipment is needed to use it.

Ofcom is in the process of auctioning off 4G spectrum that will be vacated when analogue television is switched off later this year.
The Government is keen to encourage the roll-out of the faster mobile phone networks, whose development is more advanced in America and most other European countries. The Ofcom consultation comes slightly sooner than many industry watchers had expected.

Ofcom said that “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 added that it “has considered whether allowing Everything Everywhere to use this spectrum in this way would distort competition, and provisionally concluded that it would not”. “Given the benefits this would bring to consumers, Ofcom is minded to allow this change of use,” the regulator said.

The application relates to Everything Everywhere’s 1800MHz spectrum. The firm has said that it will fund 4G roll-out using some of the £1.5bn already set aside to upgrade its network. It has already commenced 4G trials in Cornwall and Bristol, but products in the UK market this year are likely to be mobile broadband dongles rather than handsets.

Dominic Baliszewski, of comparison site Broadbandchoices.co.uk, said that “If 4G gets the green light this could give a serious boost to mobile broadband services with recent real-life tests delivering speeds in-excess of 10Mb. This could make a huge difference to the lives of rural dwellers currently struggling on without a viable fixed line broadband connection."

Everything Everywhere issues a statement saying “It’s very important that the UK does not get left behind in the building of a new infrastructure for the digital economy. We welcome today’s notice of 1800MHz licence variation from Ofcom, as it suggests Ofcom’s willingness to encourage the early deployment of 4G LTE .”


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