Ofcom criticised for delaying the 4G auction

There has been so much talk lately about the 4G auction that was supposedly going to be held early next year. One conclusion that was often drawn from these discussions was that a delay would only translate to bad news for residents and businesses in the UK. A delay would mean that the region will be left further behind in terms of LTE technology when compared to other countries that already have LTE access in Europe.

Three Mobile has also made statements saying that they will be experiencing increased difficulty in trying to meet their users’ mobile data demands, as their network is in danger of running out of capacity. Three’s chief executive, David Dyson, earlier explained the telco’s fears of being shut out of the market, saying: “There is a huge financial incentive for rival operators to delay the auction. We are worried that the other three will attempt to squeeze us out of the market.”

Despite these, Ofcom has announced that they are pushing the 4G mobile auctions from early 2012 to sometime in the latter part of the year. The telecommunications regulator cited responses they had received with regards to the auction as the reason for the delay, saying: “We received a number of substantial and strongly argued responses to this consultation. In light of these responses, and the significance of the decisions that we need to take we have decided to undertake a further round of consultation on these issues.”

The announcement has been received with mixed reactions. Some ISPs such as Vodafone welcomed the news, while other, smaller providers made their disapproval clearly known.

Trefor Davies, the CTO of provider Timico, commented: “It sounds like [Ofcom is] starting to get some of this right with the desire to extended coverage. They do however need to remember that in more than one sense speed is of the essence here. Ofcom maintains that the current delay to the auction will not affect the start date for the LTE rollout.  I accept that this is a very important decision to get right but we really can’t afford to lose any more time on this one. It’s taken Ofcom 4 months to decide on this delay.”

The CEO of policy think tank firm Open Digital, James Firth, also shared his thoughts on the matter: “Some of the behaviour is not helping and the current operators are putting profits first – for them data isn’t worth anything. Ofcom and the Government need to get the spectrum allocated as soon as possible.”

Source – PC Pro