Ofcom has delayed its proposal to allow T-Mobile and Orange UK (Everything Everywhere) to launch the country’s first 4G superfast Mobile Broadband service over their existing 1800MHz (3G) spectrum band. Separately Three UK, in an effort to ensure that they get a fair slice of the much more valuable 800MHz spectrum (covers a wider area for less money), are now mulling legal action.
Mobile operator O2 UK (Telefonica) has warned that Ofcom’s plan to auction off the 800MHz and 2.6GHz radio spectrum frequencies, which would be used by a new generation of 4G superfast Mobile Broadband services, could be put at “further risk of delay” after the regulator allowed T-Mobile and Orange UK (Everything Everywhere) to launch the country’s first 4G service over their existing 1800MHz (3G) band.
Last week’s proposal by the communications regulator, Ofcom, to allow mobile operators T-Mobile and Orange UK (Everything Everywhere) to launch a new generation of 4G superfast Mobile Broadband services over their existing 1800MHz (2G/3G) radio spectrum (here) has been heavily criticised by rival Vodafone, which suggested that the regulator had “[taken] leave of its senses“.
The communications regulator, Ofcom, has today “provisionally” proposed to allow mobile operators T-Mobile and Orange UK (Everything Everywhere) to deploy a new generation of 4G (Long Term Evolution / LTE or WiMAX) superfast Mobile Broadband services over their existing 1800MHz radio spectrum. The group first put in a request to re-purpose the spectrum for 4G use during January 2012 (here).
A new report created by Mott MacDonald for Ofcom has suggested that the much delayed auction of 800MHz and 2.6GHz radio spectrum, which will be used to deploy the next generation of 3G and 4G superfast Mobile Broadband services (e.g. LTE), could boost mobile coverage of the national UK rail network by including an “obligation for rail corridor coverage” in future licenses.
UK Broadband (UKB), a sibling of Hong Kong based telecoms firm PCCW, has today switched on the world’s first deployment of TD-LTE (Huawei’s Time Division – Long Term Evolution) Mobile Broadband technology using the 3.5GHz spectrum band in London. UKB claims that this also represents the “first commercial deployment” of a 4G service in the UK.
Mobile operator Three UK (3UK) has engaged in a spot of potentially very misleading marketing today by announcing the rollout of a “4G” HSPA+ ( Evolved HSPA ) technology upgrade that will increase the services maximum Mobile Broadband download speeds from up to 21Mbps (current) to 42Mbps. Except that’s not 4G, not even close.