UK:Mobe networks bag UK 4G for a steal - £1bn shy of Osborne's £3.5bn

bealtine

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/02/20/4g_auction/

watty

Bear in mind that
a) It's only a once off revenue so little impact to Government
b) If it was FREE and only one Operator it would be best for consumer. The more the revenue from licence, the worse for Consumer.
c) Almost everything on the Media about 4G is misleading or a lie. Unless it's an expensive network for the Elite it will never approach broadband performance.

Per MHz if only ONE user it's no faster than 3G. If there are twenty users it's twice as fast as 3G, but then as slow as 2 channel ISDN and higher latency!

There will not be good coverage outside of Urban. Despite UK Government claims it will provide almost no extra coverage. Only more capacity in parallel with 3G or Edge in many cases.

clohamon

There was no breakdown of the prices paid by Irish operators for blocks in different spectrum bands but we know the premium paid by Irish operators over and above the reserve prices was 46.65% overall.

Assuming that the premium was paid proportionate to the reserves over all spectrum bands and time slices, then the price paid in Ireland per 5 Mhz block of 800 Mhz band spectrum, per year, per million head of population is €522,000 (/5Mhz/Mpop/yr)

Adjusting for currency, population and the fact that the UK licences are 20 years rather than 15 as in Ireland, the equivalent UK figure is €202,000 /5Mhz/Mpop/yr based on the results in the OP; i.e. equivalent spectrum is two and a half times more expensive in Ireland even though there was one less bidder.

ComReg has not provided any convincing argument that this is not solely down to the low coverage requirement. (70% IE vs 98% UK)

Lets hope that the mobile companies will charge the full economic cost of LTE to those that are using it. Otherwise rural 3g users will end up cross-subsidising a service they cannot get.

watty

3G Voice users might be subsiding 4G Data users anyway ... as they do with 3G Data.

Of course they might price it Properly (About €80+ a month for a decent cap) as performance package for the elite / Road warrior.

If it's to have ANY useful performance it needs to be purely for Mobile users. Not a broadband substitute for fixed users.

The hype and lies around 3g is was and is sickening. There are more lies and hype about 4G. There are too many operators for efficient use of the spectrum.

Only making ALL of the 4G 800MHz be uplink and all of 2G 900MHz Downlink would give a real improvement on 3G @ 2100MHz once there are an economical number of customers.

The performance will be wonderful at the start with virtually no users.

Comreg ought to be prosecuted for wastage of a fixed resource belonging to the Nation for not having a single wholesale only operator and 98% Geographic coverage requirement.

A lost opportunity for TEN years. Idiotic incompetence.

carpejugulum

watty wrote: »

A lost opportunity for TEN years. Idiotic incompetence.

Yet the average salary in Comreg equals middle to top management salary in the private sector.

Telecoms quango paid staff €3m bonuses as prices soar

The telecom regulator's staff bill works out at about €80,000 per person.

watty

Yet Engineers on the road to deal with REAL issues cut from 15 to 5. They need about 25 minimum.

I have no idea how many people they have doing CE compliance lab testing.

lucernarian

watty wrote: »

Yet Engineers on the road to deal with REAL issues cut from 15 to 5. They need about 25 minimum.

I have no idea how many people they have doing CE compliance lab testing.

That would be a role for NSAI I would have thought...