Orange owner given head start on superfast phones

Everything Everywhere, which owns the brands in the UK, has gained a head start on rivals because regulator Ofcom has ruled the firm can use some of its existing spectrum prior to an industry-wide auction of 4G airwaves in 2013.

Vodafone attacked the decision but Ofcom said allowing Everything’s request to vary its existing licence for 4G was in the best interests of consumers.

Everything said: “Consumers will soon be able to benefit from the much greater mobile speeds that 4G will deliver. 4G will drive investment, employment and innovation and we look forward to making it available later this year, delivering superfast mobile broadband to the UK.”

It is expected that 4G will allow users to download an album in as little as 60 seconds or a movie in 10 minutes, compared with an hour or more for 3G.

Everything, which is jointly owned by Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom, is the UK’s largest operator with 27 million customers and employs more than 15,000 people,.

The company will be allowed to offer 4G from September 11, but has not specified when it will start the service. It has been rewarded for installing the necessary equipment for 4G since the start of the year, even though the bidding phase for the auction was not due to start until 2013.

The auction will give 4G access to at least 98 per cent of people across the UK with the equivalent of three-quarters of the mobile spectrum currently in use – some 80 per cent more than released in the 3G auction in 2000.

Vodafone said: “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.”

With Everything in talks to sell some of its spectrum to rival operator 3, Vodafone said the balance of the 4G auction will “fundamentally change”.

Thomas Wehmeier, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media, said Ofcom’s decision was a “major milestone” for the UK mobile market and a vindication of Everything’s decision to invest in readying the ground for 4G.

Everything would only be able to exploit its window of opportunity if it were able to build a successful launch strategy. The most successful 4G operators globally were those that came out of the traps quickly and built their networks out extensively, he said.

A critical task will be to convince device manufacturers to build smartphones for Everything’s network, he added. “You can build the network, but without the right devices the customers cannot and will not come.”