Jul 16, 2020

Vodafone calls for 5G auction to be scrapped

Vodafone wants the government to cancel an auction in which mobile operators bid for "Space" on the 5G spectrum. Vodafone says radio frequencies for 5G mobile services should instead be evenly distributed for a set price. The process has been fraught with delays, with EE and Three launching legal challenges in an earlier auction over Ofcom's decision to impose a 37% limit on how much each individual operator could bid for, and O2 challenging the forthcoming auction of 700MHz and 3.6-3.8GHz bands. The 3G auction cost operators £20bn. "Telecoms analyst Mathew Howett, from Assembly Research, said:"There is very clearly a cost to the industry in terms of replacing Huawei earlier than operators might have done naturally. BT, which owns EE, told BBC News it was "Less concerned about the mechanism to allocate new spectrum, be it auction or administrative decision, than the importance of awarding spectrum quickly and fairly... to avoid the UK's 5G ambitions being slowed down or even put in reverse".

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