Will dispute over 4G spectrum delay Three rollout?

ballooba

Three is currently in dispute with ComReg and by extension the other telcos over it's allocation of 4G spectrum. Essentially Three will lose it's current 4G spectrum in July 2015 and will have to move to a new 4G spectrum. All of the other operators have overlapping spectrum allocations which negate the need to move to a different frequency.
http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg1370.pdf


See page 8: http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg1388.pdf

ballooba

Tough crowd.

Dudda

They own O2 now or are in the process of purchasing it so they might be able to use their spectrum whatever it is and merge the two.

That's a guess I've no idea on the details.

Paulw

Dudda wrote: »

They own O2 now or are in the process of purchasing it so they might be able to use their spectrum whatever it is and merge the two.

In the process, and it could take a good while before it would be a done deal.

Also, if they go to consolidate, they may have to return some spectrum bandwidth.

ballooba

The O2 deal won't help Three in the short term, they don't currently have access to O2 spectrum. How are they supposed to trial 4G if there is uncertainty over their spectrum allocation? There would be huge extra effort and cost if they need to change frequency, and this is precisely what they are trying to avoid through their dispute. It doesn't seem logical or Three to be pressing ahead with their 4G trials at the moment.