Ofcom Makes UK 2G 900MHz and 1800MHz Available for 3G Mobile Broadband official today

[hecatae]

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/900-1800mhz-wireless-telegraphy/statement/Statement.pdf


Communications regulator Ofcom has today officially made the 2G (mobile voice) radio spectrum frequencies, specifically 900MHz and 1800MHz licences, available for use by 3G / UMTS and related Mobile Broadband services in the UK.

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2011/01/06/ofcom-makes-uk-2g-900mhz-and-1800mhz-available-for-3g-mobile-broadband.html

Executive summary
1.1 Ofcom published a Notice proposing to vary the existing 900 MHz and 1800 MHz licences to allow UMTS use on 28 October 2010. Ofcom is required to vary the licences in this way as a result of a direction to Ofcom made by the Secretary of State (the Government Direction).
1.2 The Government Direction was made on 20 December 2010 and came into force on 30 December 2010.
1.3 Ofcom has considered all the responses to its Notice. It has decided to vary the licences in line with its proposal in the Notice subject to some minor changes to the drafting of the licences, which are explained below.

choosing favourite parts:

Competition issues
3.17 Everything Everywhere raised a concern that Ofcom’s advice to the Government in relation to the liberalisation of the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz spectrum had not been subject to a public consultation, and did not constitute a proper competition assessment for the purposes of the amended GSM Directive.

3.18 A confidential response was concerned that liberalising spectrum in the hands of the existing licensees will distort competition and that UMTS900 spectrum has an underlying advantage for indoor and rural 3G coverage.
3.19 The Secretary of State has directed Ofcom to vary the licences for 900 MHz and 1800 MHz in the hands of the existing licensees. The Government has received advice from Ofcom in relation to the competition position relating to the variation of licences to use these bands. The Government has explained that it has undertaken the competition assessment in relation to 900 MHz spectrum that is required by the amended GSM Directive.4
Ofcom does not consider that it is required to carry out and consult on a separate competition assessment before varying the 900MHz and 1800MHz licences as required by the Government Direction.

[Ben]

Ok, I actually didn't know this was going to happen ahead of the 2012 spectrum auctions!

Where does this leave us now? Is someone going to click their fingers and we'll all be using 3G on 900/1800MHz? :S

Edit: iPhone 4 supports 3G in 900MHz but not 1800MHz afaik. Big boost for Vodafone and O2?

[gorilla]

Does anyone know which networks benefit from this specifically? Is it O2 and vodafone?

[hecatae]

do the current uk operators have the licences for 3g at the required bands or only a 2100MHz licence?


UK Spectrum Auction
The auction held in the UK awarded five companies licence for 3G spectrum. The five winners and the amount they paid for the spectrum is listed below.

Licence A: Hutchinsons 3G (TIW) £4,384,700,000
Licence B: Vodafone £5,964,000,000
Licence C: O2 (Cellnet) £4,030,100,000
Licence D: T-Mobile (One2One) £4,003,600,000
Licence E: Orange £4,095,000,000

Looking at the amounts paid for these licences clearly shows the extent to which companies went to obtain a licence. The importance of this technology and the future potential it offered was far too great to risk not winning a licence. Basically the companies felt at the time, the survival of their company was at stake if they failed to win a licence. Since then circumstances in the industry has changed and the market believes the licences were bought at far too higher rate. However the future of the technology is still believed to be a prosperous one and hence all of the companies awarded licences in the UK are investing heavily in building their 3G networks. The services that will be initially offered will be an enhancement to 2G services and will grow depending upon customer growth and market demand. Hopefully some of the services discussed in this site will be developed

The following conditions are placed upon the UMTS license holder in the UK:

Terms Date of Issue: 9/05/2000
License Duration: 31/12/2021
Coverage Requirement: 80% Population by EOY 2007
Maximum EIRP/carrier: 62dBm
Maximum EIRP/MHz: 58 dBm

Orange UK's existing licence is only for 2100MHz

http://newsroom.orange.co.uk/2000/04/27/orange-wins-umts-licence/


The licence is for 2 x 10 MHz of paired spectrum at the UMTS frequency of 2.1 GHz and is for a period of 20 years commencing this year. In addition, the licence carries the additional benefit of unpaired spectrum, which further enhances Orange's ability to provide innovative wirefree™ services. Orange's existing licence is for 2 x 30 MHz of spectrum at the 1800 MHz frequency.

Vodafone licence is also 2.1GHz

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/3Glicences/responses/Vodafone.pdf

The Register states:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/06/ofcom_refarming/


So from today network operators can switch on 3G connectivity in 2G frequencies (900 and 1800MHz), as long as they're not too near a railway (in which case they'll need to monitor possible interference with Network Rail's GSM-R network). But beyond a test site or two they won't – not until next year's mega-auction is mapped out (next month) or perhaps even completed (next year).

slightly disappointing

[Ben]

Yeah as far as I understand it any operator with 900/1800MHz spectrum can deploy 3G in it from today.

The Register has decided to suggest operators will not deploy until after the auction, but failed to make a case for why. As such I can't see at the moment why operators wouldn't go hell for leather with this - especially Vodafone and O2 as they have a commercial advantage due to their larger 900MHz holding.

Edit: GSMA's take:

UK regulator Ofcom has today given the go-ahead to the country's operators to begin re-farming their existing 2G spectrum for 3G use. In a statement, Ofcom said the move was designed to help operators “increase mobile broadband speeds, deliver improved in-building coverage and widen mobile broadband coverage in rural areas.” It noted that to date operators were only able to use “a limited amount” of spectrum for 3G, with the bulk of their holdings related to licences issued in the 1990s and restricted for 2G services. “From today the airwaves used by mobile phone operators for 2G services, such as making phone calls and sending texts, will be available to provide 3G services, such as mobile Internet browsing,” the regulator said.

The spectrum re-farming policy has not been without controversy due to the inconsistent nature of how spectrum has been awarded over the years to the UK operators. Market-leader Everything Everywhere (the operator formed by the merger of Orange UK and T-Mobile UK) had at one stage objected to the proposed legislation as – unlike rivals O2 and Vodafone – it does not hold 2G spectrum at 900MHz, which is now set to become a valuable 3G frequency. However, the market leader dropped its planned legal action against Ofcom last November and is instead calling for future LTE spectrum auctions in the UK to include a cap on the amount of low frequency airwaves that a single operator can own.

[DBMandrake]

These provisions caught my eye:

"Vary the licenses for 900Mhz and 1800Mhz spectrum to extend the period of notice for revocation for spectrum management reasons from 1 year to 5 years"

No wonder some of the networks were jumpy about investing in infrastructure for 3G, if the period of revocation was only 1 year! Why invest billions of dollars in rolling out 3G on 900Mhz if the government could turn around and change it's mind and revoke the spectrum for other use with only 1 year notice. Increasing this was no doubt a demand from the network operators, and one that I can hardly blame them for. A 5 year notice period would give them a lot more confidence in the future of the frequency holdings and allow them to invest in long term infrastructure. (What remains unknown is whether 2100Mhz has a 1 year revocation clause ?)

"Make the relevant licenses tradable. In this regard Ofcom proposes to include a provision in the licenses to note that subject to appropriate provision being made in the relevant trading regulations, the licenses will be tradable."

In other words from this point on the 900Mhz and 1800Mhz spectrum holdings can be bought and sold between the different networks. So potentially EE could buy some 900Mhz in exchange for giving O2/Vodafone some 1800. Whether O2/Vodafone would want to do this depends on the money on the table I suppose.

[Ben]

Both of those provisions should be a boon for the mobile operators.

Given that all the mobile operators already knew this was coming, I wonder if there are already plans in motion. I suppose I'm assuming that the operators appreciate what a massive deal the ability to use these frequencies for 3G is... I'm impatient already.

[getti]

Seems Three are not happy about this


Three’s parent company, Hutchison Whampoa, is threatening to pull future investment in Three UK if the Government does not ensure fair competition in its upcoming spectrum auction.

Hutchison’s concern centres around the sub 1GHz spectrum. Hutchison argues that failing to reallocate 2G spectrum for 3G services between operators will create an uncompetitive environment that will disadvantage Three.

Three has been lobbying the Government and communications minister Ed Vaizey. It wants Ofcom to address the issue in the upcoming spectrum auction. It warns that failure to do so will create higher prices for UK consumers and could stall mobile broadband network expansion.

The operator says it was the level of competition between operators that has resulted in the 3G rollout extending well beyond the license requirement of 80% to 97% coverage. It warns that the potential for further expansion is now threatened by uneven spectrum allocation.

This week Hutchison Whampoa backed Three’s campaign by raising the stakes. In a statement, it raised the prospect of the network pulling out of the UK telecoms market.

The statement said: ‘Hutchison Whampoa is committed to its UK businesses and plans further investment in the country provided that its businesses, particularly telecoms, are allowed to compete fairly.’

Kevin Russell, Three’s CEO, added his voice to the discussion. He said: ‘There is a clear expectation from Three UK that the Government and Ofcom will resolve the competitive distortion created by allowing the re-farm of spectrum currently used for 2G mobile services, and that this will be addressed in the structure of the spectrum auction planned for 2012.’

A source close to the operator said: ‘If the spectrum reallocation fails to ensure fair competition then Hutchison would have to consider whether it was worth investing any more in the network, in what will be an uncompetitive market.’

Also


Three CEO Kevin Russell has hit out at Ofcom’s plans to refarm 2G spectrum, saying the move will ‘jeopardise the competitive environment’.

Ofcom today (6 January) introduced measures to allow O2, Vodafone and Everything Everywhere to refarm their 2G spectrum for 3G services.

The move follows the Government’s Direction to Ofcom on mobile spectrum, which among other things, requires Ofcom to vary existing 2G licences in this way.

It will allow O2 and Vodafone to refarm their 900Mhz spectrum and Everything Everywhere to refarm its 1800 Mhz spectrum for 3G from today.

But Three CEO Kevin Russell said Ofcom and the Government are ‘jeopardising the whole competitive environment that the 3G auction in 2000 started to establish’. This could be a catalyst for further consolidation following the Orange and T-mobile merger, Russell warned.

He said: ‘By opening up these existing frequencies to 3G services without re-auctioning or re-allocating them, or making a clear commitment as to how similar frequencies will be made available in future, Ofcom and the Government are jeopardising the whole competitive environment that the 3G auction in 2000 started to establish.

‘Healthy competition is critical for UK consumers using mobile services and Ofcom and the Government must address the significant competitive distortions they have now created in pushing through the re-farm of spectrum currently used for 2G mobile services. This can only now be done through the structure of the spectrum auction planned for 2012.

‘The competitive benefits of spectrum consolidation and concentration was a key driver in last year's merger of Orange and T-Mobile. If the Government and Ofcom get this wrong further consolidation could result. Ultimately that can only be bad, not good, for UK consumers.’

The UK was required to liberalise 2G spectrum for 3G use by two pieces of European legislation – the amended GSM Directive and associated Radio Spectrum Decision. The Government directed Ofcom to vary the existing licences to achieve this liberalisation on 20 December 2010.This Direction came into force on 30 December 2010.

[Ben]

Three UK can offer Vodafone and O2 wads of cash for some spectrum if it so wishes.

I'm not saying that's the solution, but it's an option.

However I'm quite sure that OFCOM will reallocate at least some 900MHz in the spectrum auction in 2012. It'll want to make sure all networks licensing spectrum have the ability to provide broadband services in rural areas and to ensure competition is alive and well.

[3GScottishUser]

I don't think this move is anything to get excited about. Ofcom are simply reacting to a government order which was passed down from the EU.

GSM & UMTS can coexist so maybe 02 + Vodafone might use some of their 900MHz spectrum for UMTS900 but only in areas where they have capacity issues with 2100Mhz. They maight also use 900MHz UMTS in rural areas to improve coverage but not for some time I would not think.

3G (UMTS) is yesterdays technology and neither 02 or Vodafone will want to invest upgrading cell sites until the see what happens with the auction of the 850Mhz frequency range this year. That is ultra stable and can be used for LTE (Unlike 900/1800/2100Mhz) and will be attractive as the next generation of technology for wireless in the UK. 3 and EE are moaning that they don't have access to 900Mhz to refarm but I think thats a red herring really and they are hoping Vodafone and 02 have restrictions placed on them when the next frequency auction takes place. The big priize they all seek is LTE and what we are seeing now is some jockying for position.

UMTS900 - It's now possible but by the time it's implimented it could be an unattractive investment for the ops.

[DBMandrake]

3G (UMTS) is yesterdays technology and neither 02 or Vodafone will want to invest upgrading cell sites until the see what happens with the auction of the 850Mhz frequency range this year. That is ultra stable and can be used for LTE (Unlike 900/1800/2100Mhz) and will be attractive as the next generation of technology for wireless in the UK.

The problem with this type of thinking is that there is always some new technology that is "just around the corner", but as with buying a computer if you keep waiting and waiting for the next best thing - on the basis that whatever you buy today will be out dated a year later - you'll never buy a computer at all.

Same goes for wireless technology, which has a much longer turn around time than simply buying a new computer. I don't think some people realise just what an enormous undertaking in both money and manpower rolling out a brand new technology like LTE across ~10,000 sites is, it's something that takes years and if you keep delaying 3G roll-out because LTE is just around the corner, we'll still be stuck largely with 2G and a very substandard implementation of 3G for years to come.

LTE has a large number of problems, especially for voice use, some of which have not been solved yet. Most current LTE networks don't allow seamless in-call fall back to older technologies like UMTS or GSM, LTE transports voice as IP data rather than circuit switched data, and this has not been fully standardised yet, LTE uses a lot more battery power and has much shorter range than even UMTS (which already has shorter range and twice the battery use of GSM) so it's a move even further into the shorter range, more power hungry direction.

Initial roll-outs of LTE in many countries have been very lack-lustre, to say the least, with actual real world performance that is not much more than UMTS.

To put it simply, LTE is an interesting technology, but it's not yet ready for prime time, and almost no phones support it yet.

On the other hand UMTS still has a lot of life left in it, and is a proven technology. The latest revision of HSPA+ supports theoretical downstream speeds of up to 84Mbit/sec, and upstream of 22Mbit/sec, with faster speeds already in the planning stage, see the following quote from Wikipedia:

"HSPA+ provides HSPA data rates up to 84 Megabits per second (Mbit/s) on the downlink and 22 Mbit/s on the uplink through the use of a multiple-antenna technique known as MIMO (for “multiple-input and multiple-output”) and higher order modulation (64QAM). MIMO on CDMA based systems acts like virtual sectors to give extra capacity closer to the mast. The 84 Mbit/s and 22 Mbit/s represent theoretical peak sector speeds. The actual speed for a user will be lower. At cell edge and even at half the distance to the cell edge there may only be slight increase compared with 14.4 Mbit/s HSDPA unless a wider channel than 5 MHz is used. Future revisions of HSPA+ support up to 168 Mbit/s using multiple carriers and up to 672Mbps is proposed for 3GPP Release 11 using advanced antenna techniques."

LTE's main claim to fame is theoretical speeds over 100Mbit, so the gap is closing rapidly. It's other claim to fame is being able to work with an IP only connection from the core network to base stations - something which has also been added in the HSPA+ spec.

It also notes there are 20 HSPA+ networks in the world already running at 21Mbit, here in the UK the fastest speed implemented so far is 7.2Mbit!

The reality is that the 1-3Mbit measured performance we see here typically in the UK is far, far below what UMTS is capable of, (less than 5%) and is due to a combination of back-hauls that are too slow, too many customers per sector, and the fact that only 7.2Mbit has been rolled out, with many sites still only 3.6Mbit, so a switch to LTE is no magic bullet.

For phones, LTE really doesn't make sense yet, and may not for many many years to come. For data dongles it does make some sense though.

I really hope the networks don't delay even further waiting for the mythical LTE to mature, and get into gear with pushing HSPA+ as far as it can go. :)

[Hands0n]

Yes, the problem with the LTE thinking is that 2012 is seen as the magical year that it becomes available. But one only has to look back at 3G roll-out that was exactly that, a roll-out that is still under way for many of the networks.

And so with LTE I would anticipate exactly the same thing. People will be tied to contracts and will not be able to jump to LTE wholesale and overnight. There will be a period of up to 24 months before the last 3G customer would be able to transition to LTE. Then there is the network deployment, where the big towns and cities will receive coverage first - with big effort put into the area around the Olympics to be sure. But what will be the LTE take-up in 2012? Perhaps it may break 10% by that year's end. The year 2013 will be the first opportunity to see larger-scale take-up of the technology. Meanwhile the 3G networks will have to be maintained in full working operation, exactly as 2G networks do to this day.

All of the above is supposing that the network operators invest in LTE as they did not in 3G despite spending out on those hugely expensive licences. There is little reason to expect our operators to do anything different than before. They have a huge investment in 3G to continue to make income from. Do not expect these leviathans to develop a newfound sense of agility to sweep us all onto the new network.

Just a word about LTE for phones. I really do not agree with the above statement - and nor do the handset manufacturers apparently. They are mostly making "4G" handsets for the American and other markets at this time (don't forget we'll be one of the last "first world" nations to deploy). LTE/4G represents significant efficiencies to be made for the operators. They will not be bypassing that opportunity, even if there is no significant gain for the handset user (although I would contend that there is).

[DBMandrake]

O2 moving swiftly to start rolling out 3G on 900Mhz ?

http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/News/10662/O2_doubles_UK_network_spend.aspx

I would take it with a grain of salt as it could be a bit of posturing on O2's part, and there are some seemingly contradictory statements in the article, for example "Our 2G customers will benefit as traffic migrates to the 900MHz network and frees up capacity."

Still it's interesting to see that the incumbent 900Mhz spectrum holders could move faster than we first thought.

Where does that leave EE and Three I wonder ?

[Hands0n]

I can't see EE and Three building out 900MHz 3G. Rather, I suspect that they'll go direct to 3.5G (LTE).

[hecatae]

Interesting, Vodafone have basically said "our network equipment already supports 3G at 900mhz," and O2 Telefonica have said "crap none of our equipment supports 3G at 900mhz, lets release a press release stating we are doubling our network spend"

[Ben]

I did have a feeling! :D

Now O2 have announced, hopefully Vodafone will be forced into acting - if they hadn't decided to already.

It wouldn't surprise me if this talk from O2 remains just that for some time and Vodafone are the first network to launch 3G in 900MHz commercially. They do like to be first. But then there's been a change at the top since the heady days of 3G!

[3GScottishUser]

I'm not sure 02 are doing anything other than a bit of public relations stuff. They have had some poor press re their iPhone data services as of late.

Many iPhone users are still on GSM/EDGE and don't even have 3G!

There are not that many handsets currently in cirulation that can take advantage of 900Mhz UMTS so any spend would have to be based on future growth of smartphones and tablets.

I don't think any of the networks have a 3G Dongle that can pick up and use 900Mhz yet (02s current model does not) but Im sure models like the Vodafone K3765 which does will become available pretty soon .

BTW: 3 and EE don't have any 900Mhz spectrum, so they wont be involved with it unless Vodafone or Telefonica agree to sell them some!

[getti]

EE will use 1800 for Mobile Broadband this was mentioned in a company presentation on their new official combined website in a 3 hour long video talking about everything (everywhere) from retail to networks.

Problem is will 1800 be any good for getting indoors?, yeah its better than 2100 but no where as near as good as 900. And wasn't LTE due to be on 800 or something for better indoor coverage.

[3GScottishUser]

1800Mhz UMTS wont be much better than 2100Mhz really but there will be a bigger problem for EE as 1800Mhz UMTS isn't a standard supported by many handset/dongle makers presently. If they roll out UMTS on 1800Mhz it wil only work with new equipment.

Vodafone have been smart as all their USB dongles including the very cheapest PAYG ones are both 900 and 2100 UMTS compatible!

[DBMandrake]

Three haven't been quite as forward looking unfortunately, their excellent Mifi much to my surprise doesn't seem to support 900Mhz 3G (not that Three will ever get any from O2 or Vodafone anyway!) nor does it support 850Mhz 3G. (Which Three at least have a chance to get their hands on during the 2012 Auction) In fact although it's quad band 2G it only supports 3G on 2100Mhz, which is less than what most handsets support. Opps! :eek: