Slashdot Mirror
Everything Everywhere To Sell UK 4G Spectrum
judgecorp writes "UK operator Everything Everywhere is opening up the market for 4G services by selling some 1800MHz spectrum. Real 4G is slow to arrive in Britain as the big spectrum auction is still stalled, but Everything Everywhere is planning to deliver LTE services this year. European competition law required Everything Everywhere to sell spectrum to its rivals when it was formed from the UK networks of T-Mobile and Orange."
Someone recap for me please. Millions of pounds for...slightly faster internet on my phone? It's kind of fine now, really. Can I opt out of this, and the extra expense the phone companies are going to pass on down to me, please?
European competition law required Everything Everywhere to sell spectrum to its rivals when it was formed from the UK networks of T-Mobile and Orange.
And the Eurotrash wonder why they are driving companies away to the far east?
Good luck providing phone service to people in the UK without operating there.
The requirement was because otherwise there would be too few infrastructure-owning mobile phone companies in the UK for competition. There were five: Vodafone, O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Three. Orange and T-Mobile have now merged.
(Also, what does "eurotrash" mean? Wikipedia says "[Europeans] perceived to be arrogant, affluent, and expatriates in the United States". I've never heard the term in Britain.)
(Also, what does "eurotrash" mean? Wikipedia says "[Europeans] perceived to be arrogant, affluent, and expatriates in the United States". I've never heard the term in Britain.)
So you managed to avoid the rather tacky Channel 4 TV show? Well done!
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
Yes because the reformation of good old singular ATT is an awesome idea... Americans paying to receive texts and voice, paying $100 a month for broadband that is slower than EU is definitely the way to go.
Plus Virgin & TescoMobile, unless they're subsidiaries of the others?
Please consider this account deleted, I just can't be bothered with the spam anymore.
They lease spectrum, towers and equipment from the actual providers (O2, iirc) and essentially piggyback their network. Telco mobile are somewhat notorious for getting the short end of the stick whenever there is network congestion.
Mod parent up - I would if I had mod points. A similar arrangement applies to other 'operators' such as Asda Mobile and giffgaff.
No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun
There's a real shitstorm brewing in the UK over mobile phone frequency allocations. There were originally two GSM networks (which are now O2 and Vodafone) operating in the 900MHz band on gifted spectrum. What became T-Mobile and Orange got spectrum at 1800MHz a bit later. There was a subsequent auction of bandwidth for 3G at 2100MHz which all four acquired along with new entrant Three. T-Mobile and Orange have now merged into Everything Everywhere and therefore have lots more spectrum than everyone else. However, it's the 900MHz band - together with spectrum around 800MHz which has been cleared of analogue TV - which is the real prize as it's propagation characteristics are much better, particularly within buildings.
The real issue going forward is going to be the equitable distribution of 800MHz and 900MHz for 4G use and since various subsets of all the networks are disadvantaged either by the status quo or any change to the status quo, every proposal so far has been met with threats of lawyers at dawn. More 1800MHz spectrum is second best.
This is one of those situations in which "let the market decide" is probably going to result in stalemate or a seriously suboptimal solution for the consumer.
Yes, though (as I understand it) giffgaff are actually part of O2 and are just a brand for their no-phone SIMs. It's all marketing!
They are Mobile Virtual Network Operators: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_virtual_network_operator
There are lots: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UK_MVNO#United_Kingdom
Yes, though (as I understand it) giffgaff are actually part of O2 and are just a brand for their no-phone SIMs
Not quite - they're a different company (though wholly owned by O2) that uses the O2 network, but they're a separate entity that offer quite a different deal and compete with O2 pay-as-you-go. You get their SIM for free and stick it in whatever phone you have. I'm a customer (at £10/m for unlimited data*, txt & 240 mins of speech) that's quite happy with their crowdsourced support (members support each other) in return for a much cheaper deal. Calls to other giffgaff users are free as well. When I looked for the best deal for my n900 it made sense for me and still does.
* - no tethering