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Relish and UK Broadband Ltd Moot National 4G Wireless Network.. Again

Wednesday, Oct 19th, 2016 (8:59 am) - Score 1,388

The aptly named UK Broadband Ltd. (PCCW), which operates ISP Relish Wireless that has a fixed wireless 4G network in Swindon, Reading and central London, has once again confirmed its aspiration to launch a truly national service and to bid on Ofcom’s forthcoming spectrum auctions.

At present UKB already has a reasonable amount of spectrum in the 3.5GHz to 3.6GHz bands and anybody with a long enough memory will know that they’ve been mooting the prospect of launching a truly national network for years (they already have the licences to do it), although so far the business has struggled to turn that dream into a reality.

UKB also owns additional spectrum in the 3.9GHz, 28GHz and 40GHz bands, but at present most of that is only suitable for high-capacity point-to-point and point-to-multipoint services (e.g. business links and backhaul). But in the future some of these could become useful for 5G based mobile services, depending upon Ofcom’s approach and how the technology evolves (28GHz was a popular choice in 5G trials).

However Companies House reports that UKB’s latest annual accounts are overdue, although their last report (year ended 31st December 2014) highlighted a £37,519,874 loss (worse than the £10.35 million lost in 2013) and the business had net liabilities of £193 million. Apparently UKB’s loss for the latest year is set to maintain a similar level at £37.4m.

Never the less PCCW continues to support UKB and the company’s CEO, Nick James, just confirmed to The Telegraph that they “definitely have [their] hat in the ring” for Ofcom’s forthcoming auctions. The regulator is currently preparing a number of auctions for spectrum in bands like 2.3GHz, 3.4GHz, 700MHz, 3.6GHz and 3.8GHz etc.

Of course UKB already owns some of the same spectrum and are minded to protect it. On the flip side Ofcom has made clear that radio spectrum is a finite and valuable resource that must be properly utilized or potentially handed to somebody else. In that sense it’s only logical for UKB to talk about their grand plans for future coverage around such an auction, even if they’ve struggled with the delivery.

In fairness UKB’s fixed wireless 4G network in London has been growing and they intend to go from 130 masts today to 400 by the end of 2018 (this should treble their coverage area across the city). Admittedly the ‘up to’ 50Mbps capable home broadband service isn’t perfect and not everybody finds that they’re able to get a reliable connection, but it is improving.

However UKB will need to gobble up more spectrum if they want to stay competitive with the latest 4G based Mobile Broadband speeds, not to mention the prospect of ultrafast 5G connections in the next few years.

So long as PCCW is willing to keep backing the business then UKB will keep trying to break into the market and make it a commercial success. Apparently there are plans for a further network expansion into other UK cities, but they’d better get a move on soon because fixed line operators are already rolling out ultra-fast (300Mbps+) capable broadband connections.

NOTE: We should point out that the network in Swindon was actually built by UKB Networks, which is wholly-owned by HKT Limited in Hong Kong. However PCCW owns 63% of HKT and together the 2 separately listed companies, PCCW and HKT, form the PCCW Group.

Mark-Jackson
By Mark Jackson
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and .
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