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Mar 13 2012

Ovum comments: Ofcom proposals to allow 4G mobile services this year

Today, Ofcom outlined news proposals that could see mainstream 4G mobile services being available in the UK as early as this year.http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/2012/03/ofcom-proposals-to-allow-4g-mobile-services-this-year/

In reaction, Matthew Howett, analyst at Ovum has the following comment:

"Ofcom's proposal to allow a variation of Everything Everywhere's 1800MHz spectrum licence is both consistent with the EC's liberalisation process and follows a request to Ofcom during the recent additional consultation on the award of the 800MHz and 2.6GHz bands. The proposal to grant EE's request is both a win for it and potentially consumers in terms of getting early access to 4G services - by as much as 15 months earlier than its competitors could launch services. As we commented on previously, there appears to be growing interest in deploying LTE at 1800MHz given the nice balance of characteristics the band has - good coverage possibilities whilst also providing for capacity - both of which are necessary ingredients of a good user experience. With Ofcom no longer guaranteeing EE spectrum in the upcoming award, it would have been unlikely to dismiss this request and could in some ways be seen as offering EE a carrot to not legally challenge Ofcom's current set of proposal for how the award should proceed.

"Three are likely to be most critical of Ofcom's proposal given their on-going battle with Ofcom over what they see as the regulator's failure to properly consider the unequal sub 1GHz spectrum holdings during Ofcom's implementation of the EC's liberalisation decision. The moment is coming when it's in the interests of all parties to let that award happen sooner rather than later. If the plan to auction the spectrum in Q4 2012 goes ahead then we could see widespread availability of LTE in the UK by the end of 2013."

To speak to Matthew in regards to this news, please let me know.

Further opinion on the proposals can be found here: http://ovum.com/2012/01/13/do-ofcom%E2%80%99s-latest-proposals-pave-a-way-out-of-the-spectrum-deadlock/

Claire Booty
PR Manager EMEA
Ovum
t: +44 20 7017 7916
f: +44 20 7551 9090
bb: +44 7825 560 552
e: claire.booty@ovum.com
www.ovum.com

© Ovum 2012

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