Does anyone really believe that EE will sell LTE at full speed? My thoughts are that they will introduce various data speed caps and sell them accordingly. Let us not forget that T-Mobile already have track record and Orange have the most miserly data tariffs of all the operators. I see no precedent with either of the business merging under the EE banner that suggests the future will be bright on LTE with them.

I do think that O2 and Vodafone will make the better deployment of LTE, tariffs are likely to be better and less stingy than with EE. But I also wonder how the new terminal devices will operate, in terms of battery life, having to literally surf across three or more network bands.

Then there are the actual licences themselves. One of these is to be a "premium" one with the greatest flexibility and coming with an obligation for the winning operator to provide the largest geographic coverage of all the licences. O2's track record with 3G is lamentable, they have had to be censured by OFCOM twice already. So that really leaves Vodafone and Three as the most likely bidders for that one.