Whereas Ofcom’s announcement of the 4G spectrum auction plans for the UK is a welcome and important development in the UK telecommunications market, one can’t help feeling that it reads like the script for ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’.
‘The Good’ is the proactive and diligent effort to manage a scarce and valuable resource (ie the national radio spectrum) for the benefit of society as a whole. The fact that there is sufficient spectrum being made available (at last) to cater for the explosive growth of mobile data is also very much in the ‘good’ category.
‘The Bad’ is the fact that the licence requirements of the successful bidders will not all be the same. Whereas the obligation to provide 98% 4G national coverage on the part of one of the licensees is admirable from a social policy perspective, it is an extremely onerous demand from a commercial and operational perspective. Hopefully this will not result in a premium tariff for the provision of service to remote rural areas.
‘The Ugly’ stems from the implicit need to have to protect the current competitive landscape by mandating the number of operators that will provide service. Despite over two decades of service evolution, the need for regulatory intervention on the number of permitted competitors is a reminder of just how young this industry still is.
This entry was posted on Friday, 13 January 2012 at 11:26 am; on the subject of Market commentary.
Ofcom 4G plans – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Hudson & Yorke on the subject of Market commentary. Posted on 13 January 2012.
Whereas Ofcom’s announcement of the 4G spectrum auction plans for the UK is a welcome and important development in the UK telecommunications market, one can’t help feeling that it reads like the script for ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’.
‘The Good’ is the proactive and diligent effort to manage a scarce and valuable resource (ie the national radio spectrum) for the benefit of society as a whole. The fact that there is sufficient spectrum being made available (at last) to cater for the explosive growth of mobile data is also very much in the ‘good’ category.
‘The Bad’ is the fact that the licence requirements of the successful bidders will not all be the same. Whereas the obligation to provide 98% 4G national coverage on the part of one of the licensees is admirable from a social policy perspective, it is an extremely onerous demand from a commercial and operational perspective. Hopefully this will not result in a premium tariff for the provision of service to remote rural areas.
‘The Ugly’ stems from the implicit need to have to protect the current competitive landscape by mandating the number of operators that will provide service. Despite over two decades of service evolution, the need for regulatory intervention on the number of permitted competitors is a reminder of just how young this industry still is.
This entry was posted on Friday, 13 January 2012 at 11:26 am; on the subject of Market commentary.