UK Office of Communications (Ofcom)

Here in the UK, where LTE services are still in their infancy, it feels premature to be looking forward to the fifth generation of mobile networks. However, in recent months there has been a significant increase in activity related to 5G. There has also been a flurry of misleading hype referring to LTE-Advanced (which strictly… Read more

Last month I welcomed the fact that Ofcom had expedited the introduction of 4G in the UK by allowing Everything Everywhere to launch LTE services in advance of the UK’s forthcoming auction of 4G spectrum. Today, Everything Everywhere revealed its 4G plans in more detail. Under its new brand of “EE” it will offer LTE services… Read more

After years of delays to the introduction of fourth generation (4G) mobile services in the UK, yesterday Ofcom announced a decision that could see the launch of LTE services in the UK in the autumn of 2012. Ofcom has approved an application by Everything Everywhere to use its existing 1800MHz spectrum for the delivery of… Read more

While the announcement has been some time coming, I’m delighted to see that the commercial realities of 4G LTE investment have caused O2 and Vodafone to make a very wise partnership decision. Vodafone and O2 have announced that they will pool their networks of radio masts and antennas, which will accelerate their roll-out of 4G… Read more

The forthcoming auction of 800MHz and 2.6GHz spectrum, and the associated licence conditions, will have a profound impact on the mobile industry in the UK. In its latest consultation and proposals, Ofcom highlights that the auction is “likely to be the last significant opportunity to obtain prime mobile spectrum for many years” and that the… Read more

As we near the UK’s long-awaited auction of 800MHz and 2.6GHz spectrum for next-generation mobile services, there is very good news for UK consumers in terms of expected coverage of LTE services. Ofcom has published its latest proposals for the award of 800MHz and 2.6GHz spectrum, and it is clear that it has moved a… Read more

There have been two interesting developments in the UK mobile industry this month – one definitely good news for the industry and its consumers, and one distinctly bad. Firstly, the good news! We have devoted quite a bit of attention in this blog to the poor state of 3G coverage in the UK. While having… Read more

In his last blog article, Alastair Brydon talked about the BBC’s launch of its mobile mapping experiment’. The BBC encouraged users of Android smartphones to download and run a specially-developed application to measure and report back mobile signal levels. Yesterday, the BBC announced initial results from its so-called ‘crowd-sourcing survey’, which unsurprisingly shows that 3G… Read more

Mobile coverage – whether for voice services or mobile broadband services – is one of the most important issues for many mobile customers. In the UK, while the presence of many mobile operators has helped reduce mobile pricing levels, it has failed to deliver extensive mobile coverage. In July 2011, the Communications Consumer Panel reported… Read more