Ofcom Hands out Ten New Licences

The UK telecoms and broadcast watchdog Ofcom has awarded licences to ten different organisations to operate wireless services in the frequency bands of 10 GHz to 40 GHz. The licences, which were awarded following the fourth auction of UK radio spectrum, will allow the companies to offer high-capacity wireless services.

The winning bidders were: Arqiva, BT, Digiweb, Faultbasic, MLL, Orange, Red-M, T-Mobile, Transfinite and UK Broadband. Deutsche Telekom-owned T-Mobile paid £321,000 for a licence for two blocks of 80MHz in the 10GHz band, 2 x 252MHz in the 32GHz band and 2 x 250MHz in the 40GHz band. Arqiva shelled out £260,500 for two 224MHz blocks in the 28GHz band and BT paid £183,000 for two 126MHz chunks in the 32GHz band. French-owned UK mobile operator Orange agreed to pay £272,130 for two blocks of 252MHz in the 32GHz band.

The spectrum is suitable for providing infrastructure for wireless networks and supplying building to building high capacity wireless links. It can carry large amounts of data over distances of up to 12km. Ofcom has granted the licence holders the flexibility to decide on what type of technology and indeed what services they will offer. The winning bidders can trade the licences and even change their use of the spectrum over time.

Ofcom merely said it expects the issue of licences for the so far unused spectrum to benefit consumers by providing access to new services, greater choice and competition, and to contribute to the country's economy. The regulator's own research has shown that the use of the radio spectrum contributes at least £37 billion or 3% to UK GDP.