Britain is considering the best way to use its spectrum to provide mobile broadband access across the country. It has spectrum in the 800 MHz range to auction off, but wants to increase competition. The main issue is that the two largest mobile operators, O2 and Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), have large swaths of spectrum in the 900 Mhz range while other companies don’t.
“At lower frequencies, radio signals propagate further, meaning that fewer sites are needed for network roll out,” Catherine Viola, a senior analyst and the author of the report said in a statement. “At 900MHz, for example, networks can be built and operated with cost savings of around 50 to 70 percent compared with networks deployed in [2.1GHz] core-band 3G spectrum. These coverage and cost-saving benefits mean that operators can bring 3G services to less-densely populated areas that were previously uneconomical to cover” writes ZDNet UK. There are also plans to auction superfast 2.6GHz
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