EE and 3 may share 800MHz spectrum

Both EE and 3UK won 2 x 5MHz chunks of 800MHz spectrum in the recent UK spectrum auction for deploying LTE/4G mobile services. O2/Telefonica and Vodafone both won 2 x 10MHz chunks (with O2 having a coverage obligation).

EE currently has deployed LTE in their 1800MHz spectrum and they will relinquish some of this (2 x 15MHz) to 3UK by the end of 2013 when 3UK can deploy their own LTE services.

Generally the minimum requirement to deploy LTE is a requirement of at least 2 x 10MHz, so the two lots of 2 x 5MHz may cause EE and 3UK issues, so they are considering joining their efforts and sharing their joint spectrum, giving them access to a joint amount of 2 x 10MHz.

Currently this is just in the planning stage and it may not be technically feasible, though there is no reason why it shouldn't be.

Ofcom announces bidders for 800MHz and 2.6GHz auctions

Ofcom the super regulator that covers amongst other things radio spectrum has announced the bidders that have been accepted for the 800MHz and 2.6GHz spectrum auctions (a total of 250MHz is being made available). The details of who is bidding for what has not been made available.

Each of the following paid a £100,000 deposit and the actual auction will take place in early 2013.

• Everything Everywhere Limited (UK)
• HKT (UK) Company Limited (a subsidiary of PCCW Limited)
• Hutchison 3G UK Limited
• MLL Telecom Ltd
• Niche Spectrum Ventures Limited (a subsidiary of BT Group plc)
• Telefónica UK Limited
• Vodafone Limited

The four existing mobile network operators (MNOs) EE, 3UK, O2 (Telefonica) and Vodafone were expected to bid and will probably bid for the 800MHz spectrum.

BT was a preferred outsider and will probably be bidding for 2.6GHz spectrum.

HKT's parent PCCW already has a nationwide 3.4GHz license (but it's a weird LTE band) but they have launched an LTE-TD wholesale service in the London area, so they may well bid for 2.6GHz spectrum as at least this is a common worldwide LTE band.

MLL already have a low power GSM license and also will probably have bid for a 2.6GHz license, especially as they are developing their own LTE stack (via a 3rd party).

Next year Ofcom will announce which bidders bid for what spectrum.

Ofcom starts 800MHz and 2.6GHz auction race

Ofcom, the Super regulator that looks after radio spectrum (amongst others) has today released guidance for applicants and bidders PDF) and application forms for the 800MHz and 2.6GHz spectrum auctions.

These are similar to recent other spectrum auctions and all applications must be received by Ofcom by December 11th 2012 and at the same time Ofcom must have received a £100,000.00 deposit (which is refundable if the bidder doesn't win or withdraws from the auction within the withdrawal timeframe).

Ofcom will have some time to ensure the validity of the application and applicant (they must pass tests to ensure they are valid applicants).

On the 2nd dat Ofcom will tell all bidders of other bidders in their group.

Ofcom then allow 4 days for bidders to notify Ofcom on any group overlaps.

Ofcom then has 3 days to notify successfully qualified bidders, publish them on the Ofcom website and notify them of the last day for withdrawal.

The last day for withdrawal is 2 days following publication.

Ofcom will then publish the list of actual bidders.

Ofcom will use an electronic bidding system which allows bids to be submitted in rounds (this all gets very complicated, especially when an additional opt-in round is added to the process). Ofcom will train bidders on the use of the electronic voting system.

It's expected that at least O2 and Vodafone will bid for the 800MHz spectrum, though 3UK may join in too as they don't have any sub 1GHz spectrum at present. The 2.6GHz spectrum (especially low power licenses) may be more of a jamboree with some unexpected players joining in.

Ofcom to move DTT from 700MHz to 600MHz

Ofcom, the Super Regulator, is proposing to clear the current Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) band at 700MHz and move it to the 600MHz band that was cleared during the digital switchover. This is not going to be a quick process and Ofcom are proposing a 2018 switch-over date.

This is in-line with both EU and International harmonised spectrum policy.

The 700MHz band is already used for wireless broadband in countries such as North America and the EU also wishes to move in this direction to cope with future broadband spectrum requirements (the band could be used for LTE or other wireless broadband technologies). The 800MHz band is already being freed (as part of the digital switchover) and is being auctioned in early December 2012 and should be available in March 2013 and it is assumed the licensees will operate LTE services in the 2 bands being auctioned.

In order to move DTT services, it will be necessary to ensure maximum spectral efficiency and thus it's likely DTT MUX's will all have to migrate to DVB-T2 and MPEG-4 (as is used by Freeview HD) which may affect end-users as they will have to ensure they have the correct systems to receive these transmissions.

Ofcom are also keen to promote innovative new services such as White Space Devices (WSD) as these can use parts of the spectrum that aren't being used for DTT services (this is mainly due to overlapping DTT regions that have to use different frequency sets and thus there are areas of spectrum that are left empty in one area so as not to interfere with neighbouring areas). The 'white spaces' are perfectly usable for controlled transmissions that wont interfere with neighbouring areas, but can provide spectrum for broadband. WSDs will need to contact a central database, both to ensure that they are only using allowable frequencies and also Ofcom may enforce a kill switch to ensure that if interference does occur, that the devices can be remotely disabled.

Currently trials of WSDs are taking place in the 700MHz band.

Though 2018 seems a long way away, it took a huge amount of effort to ensure the current digital switchover could take place and it seems that this is really a second digital switchover (though DTT services already operate in the lower 600MHz band so new equipment and transmitters/etc shouldn't be required).

Ofcom announces date for 800MHz and 2.6GHz auctions

Ofcom, the super regulator has announced that the auction for the 800MHz and 2.6GHz bands will commence on December 11th 2012.

The new regulations (pdf) covering the auction (know as a Standard Instrument) has been published and will come into force on November 23rd 2012.

Ofcom is proposing to auction the following lots: -

Lot Category	A(i)	A(ii)	B	C	D(i)	D(ii)	E
800 MHz 2x5 MHz	800 MHz 2x10 MHz (with coverage obligation)	1800 MHz 2x15 MHz (Divestment)	2.6 GHz 2x5 MHz (standard power)	2.6 GHz 2x10 MHz (shared low power)	2.6 GHz 2x20 MHz (shared low power)	2.6 GHz 5 MHz (unpaired)
Ofcom’s proposal	£225m	£250m	£225m	£15m	£3m per bidder, £30m threshold	£6m per bidder, £60m threshold	£0.1m

Lots A(i), A(ii) and C are suitable for generic mobile network operator LTE services, lot B is now irrelevant as EE have divested this spectrum to 3UK.

The low power bands D(i) and D(ii) are more suited to companies that have infrastructure and can offer femto cell type services (probably on a wholesale service to the main operators - for network offload), though new entrants could come in and offer innovative localised LTE services.

Lot E is probably suited to an operator who wants to offer broadband services (not using LTE which requires paired spectrum).

This means the minimum bid (if there only 1 bidder each for the low power license) is £499.1m, and if there are 10 low power bidders £580.1m. Obviously these are Ofcom's minimum bid values and the actual values could increase substantially.

Ofcom have also valued the 800Mhz significantly more than the 2.6GHz spectrum (as it has better propagation characteristics and therefore it's easier to cover large areas of population).

Ofcom agreed to move forward the auction after O2 and Vodafone threatened to take Ofcom to judicial review after allowing EE to offer LTE services on their 1800MHz spectrum, however O2 and Vodafone have no guarantees that they will win a license in either 800MHz or 2.6Ghz (though Ofcom can assess bidders not to be suitable to bid - but based on their stability etc).

Let the fun begin.

EE to offer LTE for end of October

EE (the new brand that was Everything Everywhere) is to launch their LTE service on their 1800MHz spectrum by end of October 2012 covering 10 cities on launch and a further 6 by the end of the year. EE have now started selling LTE capable phones including the iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy SIII LTE, Nokia Lumia 920, Nokia Lumia 820, HTC One XL and the Huawei Ascend P1 LTE. The launch was delayed by complaints by Telefonica/O2 who didn't like Ofcom's decision to allow EE to refarm their 1800MHz spectrum which would in reality give them 12 to 18 months advantage as the only UK network to be able to offer LTE services (Vodafone didn't like it much either, but were less vocal). After Government intervention where O2/Vodafone agreed not to take legal action against Ofcom and EE agreed to delay the LTE launch until the dispute was resolved. It seems that Ofcom and the Government have agreed to push forward (slightly) the 800MHz and 2.6GHz spectrum auctions and move people out of the 800MHz spectrum more quickly so that these bands can be released for LTE use early in 2013. 800MHz is extremely valuable (it was the old analogue TV band) as it has extremely good propagation characteristics (i.e. it can penetrate buildings well) so is good for wide coverage in rural areas. The 2.6GHz spectrum has poor propagation characteristics though it suits urban areas where high data bandwidth is required. Both O2 and Vodafone are expected to bid for both bands. 3 has purchased the excess 1800MHz spectrum that EE had to sell off as part of the merger (as agreed with the European Competition Commission), however they don't actually get it until late in 2013 (which was the deadline for EE to get rid of it). Though it's likely that EE's launch will go ahead, there could still be problems in future as the operators could still mount legal battles. Another possibility is that a new entrant will try and land grab spectrum which could leave O2 and Vodafone out in the cold.

Everything Everywhere is allowed to offer LTE services

Everything Everywhere the merged efforts of Orange and T-Mobile have been allowed by Ofcom to operate LTE (Long Term Evolution) or 4G services in its 1800MHz spectrum.

All of the other Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) didn't want EE to be able to do this, but Ofcom have decided that it's in the public interest for them to do so, even though it may give EE a short-term competitive advantage. O2 have published their disappointment in this result.

EE currently have 2 x 60 MHz bands in 1800MHz though under the agreement with the competition commission they have to divest 2 x 15 MHz as part of its merger (leaving them with 2 x 45 MHz). Ofcom have allowed EE to utilise LTE on the full bands, not just the bands that EE will retain after the digital divide auctions expected next year (Ofcom will auction the 800MHz and 2.6GHz bands and EE's spectrum will become available as part of this).

It is rumoured that devices such as the iPhone 5 will be able to use LTE services in this band, so EE will be the only UK operator that allows full use of the iPhone's data capabilities.

Ofcom has also published a statement on the interference of LTE in the 800MHz bands which could affect TV services in the future, though their testing has shown that actual interference should be minimal for real use scenarios.

Ofcom's full statement is here.

Ofcom announces 4G auction

Ofcom the super regulator has published a statement on the forthcoming 4G auction of 800MHz and 2.6GHz spectrum.

The 800MHz spectrum has become available due to the switching off of analogue television services (the digital divide) while 2.6GHz was reserved for future IMT-2000 (3G) services.

The 800MHz spectrum will be auctioned as 2 x 30 MHz blocks (paired spectrum) while the 2.6GHz band will consist of 2 x 70MHz blocks and a 50 MHz single (unpaired) block. This spectrum amounts to an 80% increase on all spectrum allocated to date.

Existing spectrum holders can bid for increased allocations, though spectrum will be reserved for a new entrant (i.e. one that isn't Telefonica O2, Everything Everywhere and Vodafone), this new entrant could be Hutchison 3G (who currently do not have any 2G i.e. sub 2 GHz spectrum.

The 800MHz licensee will have to meet 98% indoor coverage which implies 99.5% outdoor coverage, by 2017. The licensee will also have obligations to cover 95% of the populations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Ofcom will not reserve any spectrum for low power localised services, though a low power provider can apply for a national license.

Ofcom is reserving spectrum portfolios for a new entrant, these are

Portfolio	800 MHz	1800 MHz	2.6 GHz
1	2 x 15 MHz
2	2 x 10 MHz		2 x 10 MHz
3	2 x 5 MHz	2 x 15 MHz
4		2 x 15 MHz	2 x 20 MHz

EverythingEverywhere have to relinquish 2 x 15 MHz paired spectrum as part of their arrangements with the EU when they combined T-Mobile and Orange. Ofcom have considered the request from EverythingEverywhere as to allow them to ref arm their 1800 MHz spectrum for LTE us independently from this spectrum auction and will announce its results later this year.

Ofcom has published a draft legal document which implements the auction rules, the consultation will close on 11th September 2012.

Ofcom will invite application to bid before the end of 2012 with the auction starting in 2013 and licenses awarded in March 2013.

Winners of spectrum are expected to roll-out LTE services on the new spectrum starting in the middle of 2013 with consumer services being available after that.

BT and EE launch LTE trial (in Cornwall)

BT Wholesale and Everything Everywhere have launched a trial of LTE (long term evolution or 4G) services running in Cornwall.

The trial will support 200 users split between mobile and fixed users in an area where fixed broadband is currently unavailable.

The trial uses equipment form the Chinese vendor Huawei and will run until next year.

Cornwall is a convenient area to run these kinds of trial as there is poor fixed line coverage, the conversion from analogue to digital TV has already taken place (so the 800MHz spectrum is available) and even if they get a few things wrong, there's no one to interfere with anyway.

As a shared trial, BT and EE will be ensuring the equipment can share access to the two seperate networks.

Ofcom delays auction of 800MHz and 2.6GHz (again)

Ofcom, the regulator that deals with broadcast, media, telecoms, radio and now the postal service has once again delayed the 800MHz and 2.6GHz spectrum auctions which now won't happen until at least the Q4 2012.

The 800MHz band will become available after the digital dividend (i.e. when the analogue television services are turned off in 2012), while the 2.6GHz band was reserved as an IMT-2000 (3G) band for future 3G services (or if the new 3G entrant i.e. 3UK failed and another network was set-up).

Both 800MHz and 2.6GHz are suitable for 3G services as existing phones should be able to use them (multiple band phones), they are also suitable for future mobile services such as LTE (Long Term Evolution) which is better known as 4G.

There is as more spectrum available in the 2.6GHz band than all existing 3G networks have already, however 2.6GHz has poor propogation characteristics as it is easily absorbed by buildings etc. 800MHz on the other hand has extremely good propogation characteristics (analogue TV signals work all over the UK) but can't transmit so much data. Thus 2.6GHz is suited to urban areas where there are large amounts of users and high data rates are required, while 800MHz is suited to rural areas as single sites can cover large areas.

This is also why all the legal wrangles have hindered the auction. All the 2G networks (O2, Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile) got new 3G spectrum when the 3G licenses were awarded, while 3UK just got 3G spectrum. Recently Ofcom allowed the 2G networks to refarm their 2G spectrum for 3G use, giving existing 2G networks extra 3G spectrum.

Meanwhile Orange and T-Mobile combined (and had to give up some 2G spectrum in order to meet competition rules) to become Everything Everywhere.

3UK also felt aggrieved that it had a lack of spectrum as it didn't have any 2G spectrum in the first place.

Initially O2 and Vodafone had complained as they felt the 2.6GHz spectrum should have been given to existing 3G networks as it was a 3G band and threatened to take Ofcom to Judicial Review.

3UK also felt that existing operators should have their sub 1GHz spectrum capped (both O2 and Vodafone have spectrum in 900MHz for their 2G networks).

Court threats came and went and Ofcom held consultations and the spectrum auctions (that were originally meant to take place in 2007) got delayed and delayed again.

Then the Olympics were won by UK and by now broadcasters were using HD TV and even 3D TV and that meant remote broadcasting camera systems required much more spectrum than Ofcom had originally planned so they just allocated the unused 2.6GHz band and the (what would be now freed) 800MHz band for the broadcasters so neither could be made available at least until after the Olympics.

Ofcom is now planning a further consultation in late 2011 which will take at least 2 months which will then allow Ofcom to publish a statement in Summer 2012 and then an auction can follow later (i.e. not practically until Q4 2012). Ofcom actually released this information on Fri 7th Oct at 5pm (oddly when most news desks had closed for the day - Government departments tend to release bad news late on a Friday or just before public holidays - though Ofcom of course isn't a Government department but a Quango).

Various groups have seen this as hugely damaging to the UK economy as it will eave the UK well behind the rest of Europe (and the US) in terms of rolling out next generation 4G networks (LTE), though it's also a bit of a red herring as the UK networks haven't actually published plans to to rollout 4G networks any time soon (refarming 2G bands should provide considerable spectrum and greater 3G coverage). Though groups have claimed the economic loss to the UK could be around £730m.

As Ofcom have now reserved these bands for the Olympics they wouldn't realistically be available until 2013 anyway, so the new consultation and further auction delay won't materially affect actual rollouts based on these bands.

Things are not yet settled, there could still be legal battles and it's not going to be plain sailing. It's unfortunate that Ofcom (and thus the UK) was going to be one of the first countries to auction the 2.6GHz and 800MHz bands and now it's likely the UK will be one of the last to.

Ofcom says LTE800 operators have to fix Digital TV

Ofcom will be auctioning the 800MHz band and it's expected that licensees will use the spectrum for LTE (Long YTerm Evolution)/4G services.

Unfortunately there may be interference issues with terrestrial digital TV broadcasts which may affect around 3% of the population which is around 760,000 homes.

Many interference issues will be resolved with the simple fitting of an RF filter between the aerial and the digital TV receiver, however around 0.1% of viewers will still have issues and Ofcom want those effected to have digital satellite receivers installed. It's expected that the LTE licensees will be burdened with the cost of the filters of digital satellite equipment which could cost around £100m on top of any spectrum auction fees.

Ofcom are now going to hold a consultation to see the real extent of the problem.

Everything Everywhere and BT trial LTE800

BT and Everything Everywhere are trailing LTE (Long Term Evolution or 4G) on the 800MHz band in Cornwall. 100 mobile and 100 fixed users will take place.

800MHz is part of the spectrum that Ofcom are planning to auction this year which will is currently being used by analogue TV, though some areas have already switched over to digital so the frequencies are already clear. The whole of the UK will switch by 2012.

The trial will actually use 2 x 10MHz channels in the upper band (which Ofcom are considering how to license) and though LTE can theoretically speeds of up to 150Mb/s, Everything Everywhere have stated that users should expect between 2 and 40Mb/s.

The 800Mhz band is being auction in conjunction with the 2.6GHz band (with caps depending on what portions are being bid for) and there is expected to be considerable interest from both the existing mobile network operators and broadband providers (some of who will be new entrants).

Ofcom announces plans for 800MHz and 2.6GHz spectrum auctions

Ofcom the communications regulator has announced how it intends to auction the 800MHz band (which is currently used to deliver analogue TV signals) and the 2.6GHz band (which was reserved for future 3G use). The amount of spectrum available for auction is 250MHz which is equivalent to 3/4 of all the mobile spectrum available today and 80% more than the spectrum awarded to the 3G licensees.

Though the spectrum will be made available in a technology neutral manner (i.e. the winner of the spectrum can use it for whatever they want - as long as they meet the technical criteria and don't do anything silly), it's expected that it will be used for 4G services such as LTE or WiMAX and deliver mobile broadband services.

800MHz is considered prime spectrum as it has very good propagation characteristics i.e. it can travel long distance and penetrates buildings well (so anyone who can receive analogue TV services could get broadband), Alcatel-Lucent are already trialling LTE-800 (i.e. LTE services on 800MHz) in Wales as reported in a previous article.

2.6GHz can carry more data (and there's more spectrum available) but it's better for localised high bandwidth services as it doesn't carry as far (it's worse then the existing 3G coverage). However a licensee could use the band for 3G services as 3G phones should scan this band when looking for 3G signals.

Ofcom are proposing to put both spectrum caps and spectrum floors when auctioning the spectrum so that the existing 2G operators cant get too much spectrum sub 1GHz (i.e. 1000MHz) - this really only affects O2 and Vodafone, who's 2G network was provisioned on 900MHz (Orange and T-Mobile got 1800MHz or 1.8GHz which again doesn't propagate as well as 900MHz which is slightly worse than 800MHz). The floors are there to ensure there's enough spectrum to run sensible broadband services over. Ofcom plan to offer at least 4 licenses of which some are expected to be new entrants (by capping the amount of spectrum owned in total the existing MNOs are restricted in grabbing all the new spectrum).

There's a slight fly in the ointment as when T-Mobile and Orange combined to form Everything Everywhere, they had to give back some of their 1800Mhz spectrum to comply with EU competition rules and Ofcom have thrown this excess spectrum in the pot too.

The Ofcom consultation closes on 31st May 2011 and stakeholders are invited to comment here.

The spectrum cant be made available prior to the digital switch-over as the 800MHz band will still be used for analogue TV until then and also Ofcom has made the 2.6GHz band available for use by wireless cameras in the forthcoming 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics.

It's all go for 2.6GHz spectrum auctions (next year)

At least the UK Government and Ofcom have made up their minds (and fought of legal battles) and announced that the 2.6GHz chunk of spectrum (all 190MHz of it) will be auctioned at the end of 2011.

At the same time they'll auction off the old 800MHz spectrum which comes from the digital dividend. It's all prime spectrum as it has extremely good propagation characteristics i.e. it goes through walls well.

Ofcom at the same time will allow refarming of the 900MHz and 1800MHz GSM/PCN spectrum so that it can be used for 3G (or 4G/LTE) services, which is currently not allowed under the GSM laws. The existing 3G licenses (which expire in 2021) will be made indefinite with the licensees paying a yearly fee post 2021 to Ofcom.

BT was expected to bid for the 2.6GHz spectrum when it was originally meant to become available (late 2007/2008) but now it's likely they'll just expand their WiFi and MVNO offerings as the cost of the spectrum is expected to be extremely high and they're already spending a fortune expanding their fibre roll-out to most of the UK.

It's likely the spectrum will be snapped up by the existing Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) who will use it for high speed data services using LTE, though an outsider could come in and use it to offer wireless broadband or even 3G services of their own.

There's still a decision to be made on how the 900MHz spectrum (currently owned by O2/Telefonica and Vodafone) should be re-allocated and also the 1800MHz and 2.1GHz spectrum that Orange and T-Mobile own as they're now a single entity (in regulatory terms anyway) which means they own too much spectrum for a single network as per the 3G license.

So though it's a good move by the Government there's still a few issues to iron out, including the big issue of Ofcom itself as the Government is also trying to reduce spending on the Quangos that are currently in operation, Ofcom being a major one. Though licensing spectrum could be a big earner (especially the 2.6GHz and 800MHz chunks) which could pay for Ofcom for a few years.

2.6GHz auction scrapped

Ofcom has decided to withdraw it's intent to auction the 2.6GHz band (part of the IMT-2000 spectrum). Various mobile operators had disputed Ofcom's right to auction the spectrum and had taken them to court (mainly as part of the 900MHz refarming arguments).

Ofcom changed made this decision based on the Government's Digital Britain report, which accepted the recommendations of the independent spectrum broker (ISB) which tied the 2.6GHz auction to the 800MHz auction (which becomes available after the digital switch-over).

This will delay the auction until after 2010.