Some big news from the UK this morning. UK Telecoms regulator Ofcom has now granted final approval of EverythingEverywhere’s proposed plan to roll out LTE service on its 1800MHz spectrum ahead of the UK 4G auction expected to happen sometime next year.
EverythingEverywhere is powered by Orange and T-Mobile over in the UK, was keen to exploiting the resources they already had. Of course angered their competitors like Vodafone, Three, and O2 with the idea that they wouldn’t have the title “first with LTE” before the 4G auction. We’ve got reactions from Vodafone, Three and O2 below from today’s news.
Vodafone:
“We are frankly shocked that Ofcom has reached this decision. The regulator has shown a careless disregard for the best interests of consumers, businesses and the wider economy through its refusal to properly regard the competitive distortion created by allowing one operator to run services before the ground has been laid for a fully competitive 4G market.”
Three:
“Liberalisation of 2G spectrum to date has distorted the competitive landscape in the UK, which ultimately harms consumers. Further liberalisation without addressing competition issues could make that distortion worse.”
O2:
“We are hugely disappointed with today’s announcement, which will mean the majority of customers will be excluded from the first wave of digital services. This decision undermines the competitive environment for 4G in the UK.”
With this decision from Ofcom, EverythingEverywhere can now proceed ahead and offer LTE as early as September 11th, but that’s only if their network is ready to support LTE. So what do our British readers think about this? Is it enough to make you switch?
[Source: Ofcom]