Vodafone UK Joins 3 in Delaying its 4G Mobile Broadband Launch

Mobile operator Vodafone has warned investors in the United Kingdom that its planned June 2013 launch of superfast 4G (LTE) based mobile broadband services in the 800MHz and 2.6GHz band could now face several months of additional delay.

Vodafone picked up a significant slice of the related 800MHz and 2.6GHz radio spectrum bands from Ofcom in February 2013 for a whopping £802 million, which included 2 x 10MHz of 800MHz spectrum, 2 x 20MHz of 2.6GHz spectrum and 25MHz of 2.6GHz unpaired spectrum.

But yesterday’s Q1-2013 financial results revealed that Vodafone had suffered a sharp fall in its pre-tax profits for southern Europe (details), which is believed to be one of the factors that has fuelled a more cautious approach towards 4G. Suspected delays in the implementation of new network hardware and EE’s inability to make 4G into a huge success could be other possibilities.

Vodafone Statement on its EU Network Strategy

“Our network strategy continues to focus on supporting higher speed data in both mature and emerging markets, and delivering a consistently excellent data experience to our customers through the widespread deployment of HSPA+, LTE and high capacity backhaul. We expect to continue our consistent level of investment so that Vodafone customers can be assured of a video-standard data service across our footprint in Europe and we can successfully manage the high growth in data volumes anticipated.

We aim to extend our 3G footprint at 43.2 Mbps and LTE coverage across our five major European markets to 80% and 40% respectively by March 2015.”

It’s interesting to note that Vodafone, which was once a pioneer of Mobile Broadband, has become increasingly quiet over the past few years. Similarly some recent studies have highlighted concerns with their mobile network quality in the UK (here and here).

On top of that Vodafone’s total spectrum investment (across all its countries of operation), over the past four years, has now hit a staggering £7.9 billion. Mobile is an expensive business and one that the EU has also made less profitable, albeit to the benefit of consumers.

Never the less Vodafone UK was quick to say that “preparation for LTE roll-out is underway“, although it warned that this was now expected to take place in “late summer” instead of June (i.e. could run into September 2013).

It should be said that Vodafone aren’t the only operator to have delayed 4G, with Three UK being the first to push its launch back into Q4-2013 (here). Kind of makes you wonder why they all argued so much for an early end to Ofcom’s auction in the first place.