Ofcom consults on liberalising more spectrum for provision of 4G mobile services

Ofcom said Vodafone and Three had asked it to "remove the regulatory constraint on the use of LTE (4G) technology in their spectrum licences". Vodafone already owns licences in the 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz bands. Three owns a licence in the 2100 MHz band. Both companies currently utilise the frequency spectrum to provide 2G and 3G services.

Ofcom is currently holding an auction of spectrum in the 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz bands for 4G services. It said removing constraints on how spectrum in the 900, 1800 and 2100 MHz bands would complement the purpose of its auction.

"We propose ... to liberalise all mobile licences in the 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz bands to permit the deployment of 4G services (where such licenses have not already been liberalised)," Ofcom said in its consultation paper. (84-page / 753KB PDF) "This will align the permitted technologies across all mobile spectrum licences, including the existing licences at 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz and the licences to be awarded by auction in the 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz bands. This will meet a long standing objective to liberalise all mobile licences so that there are no regulatory barriers to the deployment of the latest available mobile technology."

The regulator said that it had considered its "principal duty" to "further the interests of citizens in relation to communications matters and to further the interests of consumers in relevant markets, where appropriate by promoting competition" as well as its "duty to promote optimal use of spectrum" when reviewing whether it ought to propose liberalising the use of the frequency bands for 4G services.

Consumers will "likely" see benefits of the liberalisation "over time", Ofcom said. It said that those benefits would probably include gaining access to "increased data speeds" for downloading content.

"We recognise that operators may not immediately deploy 4G services in the newly liberalised bands," Ofcom said. "If so, then the consumer benefits associated with liberalisation would not occur immediately. However, it is likely that the operators will take advantage of the increased flexibility, and that consumer benefits will flow from this, in due course."

The plans would be unlikely to lead to a weakening of competition in the market, Ofcom added. This is because there will be "large amounts of liberalised 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz spectrum that will be available" to mobile internet providers as a result of the 4G auction currently taking place, it said.

The term '4G' is generally used to refer to mobile broadband services delivered using the next generation of mobile broadband technologies; including Long Term Evolution (LTE) and WiMAX. LTE technical standards make more efficient use of radio spectrum, which makes them ideally suited for the high bandwidth data services including video streaming, social networking and GPS and mapping services used by smartphones and laptops.

Mobile phone companies were first awarded varying amounts of spectrum at 900MHz and 1,800MHz in the 1990s on the condition that this could only be used for 2G services, mainly voice calls and text messages. In 2011, Ofcom ruled that this could also be used for 3G services as part of its plans to "liberalise" spectrum use for the benefit of consumers.

Last year Ofcom granted Everything Everywhere the right to use the 1,800 MHz spectrum the company owns for the purposes of providing 4G services. The move prompted initial opposition from rival providers, but the threat of legal action was eased after the regulator brought forward its auctioning off of spectrum in the  

800 MHz and 2.6 GHz bands to enable rival 4G services to EE's to emerge sooner.

Ofcom's consultation on its latest spectrum 'liberation' exercise is open until 29 March.