Spectrum, mobile & wireless update September 2017

ISP Review reported on the launch of legal proceedings by both Three and EE in relation to Ofcom’s forthcoming 4G and 5G spectrum auction. Three is calling for a tougher cap on the amount of spectrum that EE can own; EE is seeking to overturn Three’s challenge (further background on this here).

EE launched a new 4G  home router supporting 4G+ (“EE’s 4G+ speeds are available in more than 150 towns and cities across the UK, and are as fast as Fibre Broadband”), offering download speeds of up to 90Mbit/s.  EE also announced further upgrades to its 4G network, including refarming 10MHz of 1800MHz spectrum from 2G to 4G to increase speeds and reliability.

The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan called for a major increase in infrastructure spending across the UK in the aftermath of Brexit, including on broadband and 5G infrastructure.

UK Government Investments published its second annual update on the Public Sector Spectrum Release Programme on progress towards delivery of the government’s target to make available 750MHz of public sector spectrum in bands under 10GHz by 2022.

Point Topic published an analysis of 4G pricing and usage caps across Europe; UK consumers pay lower tariffs but often receive lower data allowances than consumers in other European countries (also see ISP Review).

Ericsson published a new a report conducted in collaboration with Imperial College London suggesting that as mobile broadband penetration increases by 10 %, it causes a 0.6-2.8% rise in gross domestic product (GDP), translating to an equivalent of approximately $500–2,000 billion, worldwide in 2016.

The European Commission published a study on satellite broadband services for schools, which concludes that, despite some limitations, satellite can be an efficient option for poorly connected schools. It also suggests that a voucher scheme could be used as a tool to close the broadband gap for schools.

T-Mobile, Nokia and Qualcom announced the achievement of gigabit speeds using evolved, commercially-available 4G LTE technology in laboratory testing..

Virgin Atlantic announced it is the first airline in Europe to offer Wi-Fi on all services; a study by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in association with Inmarsat suggests Inflight broadband has the potential to create a $130 billion global market within the next 20 years, resulting in $30 billion of additional revenue for airlines by 2035.