Ofcom May Reallocate Unpaired 2100MHz UK Mobile Band
Ofcom has today announced that they may revoke the current mobile operator licences – held by EE (BT), Three UK and O2 (VMO2) – for the unpaired part of the 2100MHz band (1900-1920 MHz), which was originally auctioned off in April 2000 to support the rollout of 3G mobile (mobile broadband) networks.
Just to be clear, all of the four major mobile network operators (inc. Vodafone) already make use of paired spectrum in the 2100MHz band. But today’s news concerns the smaller 20MHz piece of unpaired spectrum in that same band.
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Ofcom says this bit of spectrum is “currently unused” and operators seem unlikely to change their stance. Apparently, none of them want to deploy higher-power services in the spectrum, due to the lack of an ecosystem, as well as the need for a guard band against paired spectrum (reducing an already limited pot of spectrum) and the limited bandwidth it offers.
“To achieve optimal use of the spectrum, we think it may be appropriate for us to revoke the current licences so we can reallocate it. Our provisional view is that there is potential for this spectrum to be used by emergency services, railways or the utilities sector,” said the regulator.
Ofcom’s Provisional Views
• The current non-use of the unpaired 2100 MHz spectrum for public mobile services and EE’s potential use of its 4G licence for the [ESN – Emergency Services Network] Gateway may not be optimal because there may be other higher value users of the spectrum.
• We consider there may be other spectrum frequencies capable of supporting the ESN Gateway and we are doing further technical work to assess this.
• There are potential complexities to achieving optimal use through trading in this band, such that we cannot rely on it to achieve our policy objective.
• Regulatory intervention by revoking the existing licences to enable Ofcom to reallocate the spectrum for new uses may be necessary to achieve our objective of optimal use.
Ofcom will now consult upon all this until 25th May 2023 and, subject to consideration of the responses they receive, they plan to reach a conclusion on optimal use of the unpaired 2100MHz spectrum and how best to achieve it in early 2024.
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, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Let’s hope they move it into the shared spectrum process
I think it should be used like the CBRS band is used in the UK. Open Access but licensed
if these operators have paid for the spectrum and ofcom want them back they should buy them not order them to give them back
I think they paid for using the spectrum not owning it
The 3G licences were originally for a fixed period to 2021. These licences were then subsequently extended indefinitely subject to an ongoing annual fee. So presumably it will just be a pro rata repayment if they’ve already paid their fees for 2023, or they could wait until the renewal date.