Ofcom updates 4G auction proposals

[Wilt]

The only issue with the 'not spot' route, is how do you define a 'not spot'? Or perhaps more importantly, who will be defining it?

Will it be the operator? In which case, are they only going to go as far as providing a token effort then giving up when the £150million is exhausted?

Or are Ofcom going to try and do it? Are they even allowed to tell a private company where they must place resources?

[Ben]

That's the thing, I don't think it specifies, at least not in the news reports. If Ofcom specifies the areas that must be covered then we should be ok.

I think Germany did a similar thing and it worked really well. At the end of the day, if the condition is only tied to one license then there's no obligation on any private company to bid for it.

[Hands0n]

This is a good plan, generally. The only thing is that the networks must not be permitted to cause any further delays. We are already 18 - 24 months behind the rest of Europe!

[gorilla]

The level of coverage is always going to be contentious, particularly in the more rural regions.
As Hands0n says above, this needs to be sorted quickly. My home broadband is going to be 100Mbps by the time I get 4G (and maybe faster if I pay for it) so the mobile operators will need to be competing with that, otherwise what is the point?
At the minute I'd take getting 3G everywhere, not just in rural areas but within buildings.

What is happening to 2G (GSM?) when we finally get 4G?

[Ben]

What is happening to 2G (GSM?) when we finally get 4G?

I think there'll be thin GSM coverage around for some time yet. I'm not sure how it works technically, but I think it can hang on even with WCDMA slowly encroaching on its territory.

[hecatae]

so would we see 2G + 3G + 4G sim cards or do you think we will see 3G + 4G only sim cards?

[Ben]

I predict that SIMs will allow access to all technologies, and that support will instead depend on handset for the time being. That's only a personal prediction, though.

I think there's the potential to see networks granting LTE-only access on consumer tariffs once coverage is sufficient. But most if not all GSM networks in the UK will need to maintain GSM capabilities for some time yet if only to support deployed M2M solutions (things like chip-and-pin machines are still being sold on 2G now), so I'm not sure they'll be fussed about it.

I'm not sure what the issue was when 3G launched. Part of it seemed to be about supplying more capable SIM cards (perhaps there were security implications), but part of it also seemed to be about restricting access to the new network, trying to retain some level of control initially until all the kinks were worked out.

[Wilt]

This is a good plan, generally. The only thing is that the networks must not be permitted to cause any further delays. We are already 18 - 24 months behind the rest of Europe!

True, although the spectrum isn't available yet anyway so I don't think the auction delay will push back actual roll-out by too much. I would assume all of the networks will be planning how they're going to roll out LTE based upon what spectrum allocation they anticipate getting.