Lord Carter’s Digital Britain review promises to establish minimum broadband speeds across the country of 2Mbps by 2012 — but Carter’s broadband advisor Kip Meek today argues that the UK could reach speeds of 4Mbps and more than 50Mbps in urban areas through investment in next-gen mobile broadband networks. In his final Independent Spectrum Broker report (pdf) released Wednesday, Meek argues that the re-division and auction of rights mobile spectrum frequency between telcos would make the transition to next gen broadband “smoother and faster than seemed possible, even a year ago.” But it will involve telcos offering rivals access to frequencies they own and putting a limit on how much each one can buy, which is a tricky business. Here’s Meek’s plan to break to the deadlock…
— Frequency trade-off: Meek says O2 and Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) must be prepared to auction off their portions of the older, so-called 2G, 900MHz spectrum — which is effective in reaching rural areas — if they want to bid for the as-yet unawarded “digital dividend” 800MHz spectrum. Ofcom has already called O2 and Vodafone to give up the 900MHz spectrum so other operators can offer an expanded service. Orange has already expressed interest in providing a new 900MHz service while T-Mobile and 3 will also be interested. More after the jump…
— Universal coverage: Under Meek’s plans, holders of the new 800MHz band must sign up to a “basic national coverage obligation at a specified speed”, or specifically offering 99 percent of the population a minimum speed — such as 2Mbps — as well as some obligations to cover specific, under-served regions. Meek says this alone will guarantee “near-universal” mobile coverage.
— Superfast mobile: As announced in April, Ofcom will hold an auction for the superfast 2.6GHz “3G expansion” band — suitable for wimax services — and Meek wants this to happen before the end of the year. To encourage competition he is also favour of a spectrum cap — meaning in most cases telcos can hold on the spectrum they own, but they would need to sell some to get access to new high-speed bands like 2.6MHz.
— What now?: The final Digital Britain report on June 16 will shed more light on the government’s plan of action to extend broadband to all, but for now Meek says his proposals could be “developed and finalised” by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform “leading to a government direction to Ofcom”. And if Meek’s right about all this, he says the plans “would put the UK at the forefront of commercially-deployed mobile technology around the world, delivering economic and social benefits that far outweigh the costs.”
Comments have been disabled for this post