Olaf Swantee chief executive of Everything Everywhere has warned the other networks about the consequences of taking legal action over Ofcom awarding them 4G LTE on 1800Mhz

He warned if the other networks took legal action it would force the operator to consider legal action against the 4G 800Mhz and 2.6Ghz auction.

Everything Everywhere will have a 4G monopoly for at least a year and likely much longer than that.

I guess if the other networks can delay Everything Everywhere getting their hands on 4G for a year or more legal action would be worth it.

He said that it would first offer dongles that can be used to pick up 4G signals, with handsets expected to become available shortly afterwards.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/96cdaba8-e...#axzz24g38UlVw

O2 and voda can **** off, they cant even increase their 3G coverage! useless. basically they are being left behind and its all their own fault

Vodafone and O2 are going to share 3G Networks to improve coverage actually. Heaven knows O2 needs improved coverage badly

Interestingly the former Chief Executive of Orange Tom Alexander is joining forces with some private equity companies to try and form an £8BN buyout of EE ! This could get interesting.

Also the 2 companies that deliberately tried to delay the 4G auctions with legal threats will now be the last operators to launch 4G !! just deserts anyone?

EE & 3 will both now likely launch 4G before O2 and vodafone!

So do Vodafone. Both are about as useless as each other - for me it's T-Mobile/Orange/3 all the way if I actually want to see the 3G indicator on my phone

I especially liked the time that I drove past Vodafone's global HQ in Newbury and my phone (which was on VF at the time) proudly displayed a belting 2G signal

I remember going past Newbury in the mid 90's and going past Vodafones offices there was absolutely no signal at all!!

Being realistic what is at stake is the next generation of mobile data technology and both Vodafone and O2 have every right to protect their businesses if others are allowed to move the goal posts and deliver new services in advance of them being able to compete.

EE can play the benefit to the nation card all they like re LTE but they have been given a golden ticket by Ofcom that not only created the biggest UK mobile operator but through consolodation of their assets has created capacity to offer new technology before any others. O2 and Vodafone should challenge and force the regulator to prevent any company from providing next geneation services until the 850/2600 MHz spectrum auction process has been concluded.

Why a single operator is being given such a head start is bewildering but it probably has a lot to do with supporting Apple's new iPhone spec and that in light of their anti-competitive behaviour lately seems totally inappropriate and a gift for greedy companies to share the spoils of unjustified support and protection. In the long run consumers will pay if Ofcom are allowed to favour EE and Apple with tailor made LTE provison exclusively in 2012/13.

All caused mainly by the delays which were started by O2 first and then Vodafone, so they got what the deserved. If they hadn't deliberately tried to delay the auctions then this whole situation might never have happened.

That's greed for you, sounds like O2 got what they deserved, and now EE followed by 3 will probably be first to market with 4G, and will still be bidding for the other 4G freqencies when they go on the market (all be it delayed, a process which O2 orchestrated)

EE and 3 will not be able to use 1800MHz for LTE if others start litigation. I expect they will as it is in their business interest to do so. They cannot afford to allow others to deliver new technology that they have no access to.

Ofcom's recent moves could possibly delay the provison of LTE in the UK even further.

O2 and Vodafone have also had things given to them - they are now allowed to do 3G on 900MHz - spectrum that the other 3 licencees do not have, and spectrum that was sold off to O2 (cellnet) and Vodafone for a minimal price.

Would you argue that O2 and Vodafone should not have been able to do 3G on 900MHz in the interests of fairness? Or should they have been prevented until Ofcom acted to make the situation fair for all?

After all there are 3 licencees who having paid billions for what was at the time the only 3G spectrum, now having their investments undermined by giving O2 and Vodafone the chance to use much cheaper spectrum.

Maybe that's why EE now have this opportunity from OFCOM - enhancements to existing spectrum, just as O2 and Vodafone got. Isn't 3 getting their share by having special preference in the 4G auction?

Wave - Either frequency re-use is allowed or it's not. If it was fair for O2 to re-use 900Mhz for 3G, frequency which they didn't pay market rates for, then it's fair for EE to re-use 1800Mhz for 4G.

It has to be one way or the other, which way do you want it because you can't argue it's only fair if it's in O2's favour, either frequency re-use (which O2 asked for and has benefited from) is allowed, or it's not. If O2 hadn't deliberately delayed the 4G auctions by strategy this whole situation has worsened for them as a result, what a shame.

Reusing 900Mhz for 3G was not a game changer. It allowed a limited amount of bandwidth to be reused for more efficient delivery of data. Much of the 900Mhz bandwidth has to remain commited to GSM services.

The chunk of 1800Mhz that EE propose to use is much bigger than the 900Mhz 3G gain for O2 or Vodafone. That coupled with a new technology licence makes the EE benefit somewhat greater and I suspect the courts when asked will agree if Ofcom are challenged.

Lets wait and see. It's looking just a little too cut, dried and cosy right now and I suspect a few bombs to drop over the next few weeks.

That's different to what you've been saying for months on this forum. You posted about it in about 20-30 posts saying what a big deal it was, literally everything your posted over weeks and weeks was about how big 900Mhz was.

3G is a technology all networks use. Allowing one network alone to use 4G LTE on 1800Mhz with no competition for well over a year is a very different kettle of fish

How? Allowing them to use 3G on 900MHz lowers their rollout costs and provides an advantage that the other networks could not really hope to achieve.

It also undermines the billions of pounds that the other networks spent on their licences, by giving two networks the ability to do it they acquired for peanuts.

If O2 and Vodafone are allowed to do 900MHz 3G then EE should be allowed to do 1800MHz 4G.

That is exactly the issue and quite rightly those who don't have the same opportunity to compete should challenge the reugulator in the interests of both their shareholders and consumers in general.

Neither O2 or Vodafone have sufficient 1800MHz to offer LTE services. They only have a small amount to provide GSM coverage. 2100MHz is reserved currently for UMTS and 900MHz has to be reserved for GSM with some UMTS. So neither O2 or Vodafone have any LTE opportunity and will have to bid for new spectrum when its auctioned along with other bidders. Fair for them to have to wait 12-24 months before being able to offer a comparable service/product to their customers?

3 will be joining them afterwards with the 1800Mhz they bought from EE and have signed a deal with Samsung to deliver 4G.

This is about frequency re-use, something which O2 argued for when it was in their favour, as they were trying to delay the 4G auctions. O2 has 1800Mhz too, but unlike EE they haven't been working towards this for a year.

3G on 900Mhz has had minimal impact. They need to keep spectrum for 2G so there are limitations to how much they can use for 3G.

That's surely an issue of execution - if Vodafone and O2 want to persist in doing the minimum possible in 3G investment, that is not OFCOM's or EE's problem.


Isn't that also the case for 4G on 1800MHz? I'm not aware of how much each operator has of what, but presumably the 2G 1800MHz operation is going to start to waver in quality and capacity as LTE takes hold and takes over (eventually).

As I've pointed out, there are numerous occasions where O2 and Vodafone have got a good deal (and not just on 3G on 900MHz). Do O2 and Vodafone now pay sensible rates for their 900MHz licences on the basis they can do 3G with them? http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=U...page&q&f=false suggests possibly not. O2 and Vodafone therefore (IMO) should shut up when it comes to competitive advantages and favouritism because for once they aren't getting their own way on something.

Its unlikely Everything Everywhere will relinquish 1800Mhz to 3 till September 2013. Thus increasing their competitive advantage.

That's not the message Wave has been posting for months, they apparently had some super duper technology that allowed them to re-use 2G and 3G frequencies at 900Mhz and Wave said it was a very big deal indeed, it must be there were so many posts about 3G at 900Mhz. I'm just trying to say you can't have it both ways.

In any case O2 has 1800Mhz and according to Olaf Swantee, nothing was preventing them from doing the same.

O2 and Vodafone have relatively little spectrum on 900Mhz compared with EE even when they have to sell off part of 1800Mhz.

O2 and Vodafone have very small allocations on 1800Mhz. Not enough to run 3G let alone 4G.

Vodafone GSM 900: 890 - 894.6 MHz 935 - 939.6 MHz
BT Cellnet GSM 900: 894.8 - 902 MHz 939.8 - 947 MHz
Vodafone GSM 900: 902 - 910 MHz 947 - 955 MHz
BT Cellnet GSM 900: 910 - 915 MHz 955 - 960 MHz

Vodafone GSM 1800 &
BT Cellnet GSM 1800: 1710 - 1721.5 MHz 1805 - 1816.5 MHz
T Mobile GSM 1800: 1721.5 - 1751.5 MHz 1816.5 - 1846.5 MHz
Orange GSM 1800: 1751.5 - 1781.5 MHz 1846.5 - 1876.5 MHz

2 × 5.8 apparently, whether that is enough or not I don't know. They certainly have a lot of 900Mhz, and didn't have to re-use this for 3G services, they chose to.

They were happy with frequency re-use then, and when they were trying to delay the 4G auctions, they also could have bought EE's 1800Mhz to go with the 2 × 5.8.

Whilst the situation is unfair it should be remembered that rushing to be first to market isn't always a great advantage. 3 deployed UMTS first in 2003 and for years got the concept of 3G totally wrong offering video calls that nobody wanted to use and a walled garden of content with no proper Internet access! They changed strategiy and have made big improvements but theirs is a case that proves beyond doubt that having the latest technology in the market place first is no guarantee of success.

O2 have the most experience of LTE in the UK and have been testing it in the Isle of Man for some time since it's inception plus they also have had the largest UK operational deployment of LTE in Central London this year. Others have experimented with LTE in other markets and some have commercial products now available outwith the UK.

I think Vodafone and O2 have justification to challenge Ofcom and have little to loose ignoring the threats from EE about further delays to the LTE spectrum auction process which would affect all the mobile operators equally.