By: MarkJ - 27 January, 2010 (1:29 PM) - Score: 12336 - Mobile Broadband

The UK governments Independent Spectrum Broker (ISB), Kip Meek, has said that an auction of the 2.6GHz spectrum band is unlikely to happen this year. The band is ideal for use by future 4G Mobile Broadband technology, such as Long Term Evolution ( LTE ), which promises peak download speeds of up to 1000Mbps (1Gbps).

Part of the problem rests with the inability of Meek to reach a clear consensus over the 900MHz band (mostly used for 2G mobile phone voice communications), which is proposed to be "re-farmed" for use by 3G and 3G Mobile Broadband technology. The other problem has to do with a looming general election, a legal challenge from BT and thus any inevitable ramifications upon existing policy goals.

The 800MHz band (790-862MHz) of radio spectrum, which is currently being used for the old analogue television (TV) service, is also expected to be auctioned off for use by Mobile Broadband but faces similar concerns. Suffice to say that operators cannot plan for the future while such uncertainties exist. The result is that we’ll have to live with existing HSPA based Mobile Broadband technology for a bit longer.