Posted: 15th Jun, 2011 By: MarkJ

A Hong Kong-based telecoms firm,
PCCW, has announced its intention to build and launch a new superfast 4G based wireless Mobile Broadband internet access service in the UK by
2012. The service will be deployed via its local subsidiary,
U.K. Broadband, and would make use of the latest
Long Term Evolution ( LTE ) technology.
U.K. Broadband, which also operates a little known and quite out-of-date fixed wireless ISP called '
NOW', appears keen to leverage the large amount of radio spectrum that it already owns in the
3.5GHz and
3.6GHz bands. However, this could be problematic because neither has traditionally been associated with LTE technology, although the firm believes that it is suitable.
As a result the operator is heavily dependent upon equipment manufacturers and claims to be closing in on a number of crucial deals that would see LTE at 3.5GHz and 3.6GHz being fully supported.
The CEO of U.K. Broadband, Nicholas James, said (FT):"It is the company’s intention to launch a 4G service. We are currently working with our vendors to finalise the equipment offering on our spectrum. And we are finalising our network planning and our business plan."
It's important to stress that U.K. Broadband's plan relates to a
wholesale business model, which other operators or those with no mobile network infrastructure of their own could use to provide enhanced mobile data services to their customers. The report suggests that Virgin Media , which currently only runs a virtual mobile network, could be interested.