The telecoms regulator, OFCOM, has announced it is to start selling off parts of the radio spectrum for 4G mobile services in 2012. Interestingly, this 4G is defined by OFCOM as LTE rather than WIMAX. LTE is the same technology used by Verizon in the US so is now looking to be the latest standard to be adopted, hopefully worldwide.
It's now been 11 years since the 3G spectrum was auctioned off to mobile networks here, so really is time for an update. It is obvious that all networks will want a 4G licence, Orange lost out considerably by not purchasing a 3G licence when they were first offered. The only question is how much will they pay? For 3G, the highest bid was around £4.1bn, but is 4G worth as much as 3G was?
I think it is, customers are demanding more data, quicker and the best way to provide this is via a 4th generation network delivering broadband speeds. Whoever first implements LTE in this country will make an awful lot of money, especially as, by then, Apple may have implemented a full LTE iPhone, rather than the 3G-only Verizon iPhone.
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