3GScottishUser
10th December 2006, 11:33 PM
Ofcom will fire the starting pistol for a new auction of third-generation (3G) mobile spectrum when it lays out its plans for the eagerly awaited sale this week. But the Treasury is thought likely to raise only about a tenth of the £23 billion in licence fees that it raked in the first time.
Companies including BT and the main mobile operators are preparing to return to the auction table as proposals for the use of the prime spectrum and details of how it will be sold will be laid out in a consultation paper. The telecommunications regulator, which has retained DotEcon and Analysys as consultants on the auction, will explain how it believes the band should be released to the market and how it should be used.
The initial sale of 3G licences, at the peak of the dot-com boom, attracted bids at levels that no one had thought possible. The operators — Vodafone, Orange, BT, T-Mobile and 3 UK — convinced themselves, during more than 100 rounds of bidding, that it was a “make-or-break” technology. As the technology and telecoms market crashed around them, they were left with significant debts and a technology that was, in those days, ill-formed. The splurge by BT — which spent about £10 billion on acquiring licences in Europe — was a significant factor in the debilitating debt that forced it to demerge its mobile arm, now O2.
Yet, aside from 3, the mobile operators began to market and advertise the service actively only last year. A study by Ofcom found that in the fourth quarter of last year fewer than one third of adults understood the term 3G. The new band originally was allocated for providing more 3G mobile spectrum and is known as the 3G expansion band. However, Ofcom will emphasise in its document that it will take a “technology-neutral” approach. The spectrum auction is also likely to attract providers of wi-max — fast-speed wireless broadband. BT has said already that it is “very interested” in the spectrum, which sits in the 2.6 gigahertz position. It could prove useful for the group’s push into converged products, such as its combined fixed and mobile phone. Canning Fok, the managing director of Hutchison Whampoa, the owner of the 3 mobile business, which pioneered 3G in the UK, declined to comment.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9076-2497881,00.html
Companies including BT and the main mobile operators are preparing to return to the auction table as proposals for the use of the prime spectrum and details of how it will be sold will be laid out in a consultation paper. The telecommunications regulator, which has retained DotEcon and Analysys as consultants on the auction, will explain how it believes the band should be released to the market and how it should be used.
The initial sale of 3G licences, at the peak of the dot-com boom, attracted bids at levels that no one had thought possible. The operators — Vodafone, Orange, BT, T-Mobile and 3 UK — convinced themselves, during more than 100 rounds of bidding, that it was a “make-or-break” technology. As the technology and telecoms market crashed around them, they were left with significant debts and a technology that was, in those days, ill-formed. The splurge by BT — which spent about £10 billion on acquiring licences in Europe — was a significant factor in the debilitating debt that forced it to demerge its mobile arm, now O2.
Yet, aside from 3, the mobile operators began to market and advertise the service actively only last year. A study by Ofcom found that in the fourth quarter of last year fewer than one third of adults understood the term 3G. The new band originally was allocated for providing more 3G mobile spectrum and is known as the 3G expansion band. However, Ofcom will emphasise in its document that it will take a “technology-neutral” approach. The spectrum auction is also likely to attract providers of wi-max — fast-speed wireless broadband. BT has said already that it is “very interested” in the spectrum, which sits in the 2.6 gigahertz position. It could prove useful for the group’s push into converged products, such as its combined fixed and mobile phone. Canning Fok, the managing director of Hutchison Whampoa, the owner of the 3 mobile business, which pioneered 3G in the UK, declined to comment.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9076-2497881,00.html