It has been reported that the UK government has convinced Orange UK and T-Mobile ( Everything Everywhere ), O2, Vodafone and Three to halt any legal actions against each other and Ofcom to prevent further delays to the 4G mobile auction of the 800MHz and 2600GHz frequency spectrum bands which are the key to widespread to 4G in the UK.
Previously, a number of mobile operators were against the earlier than expected 4G launch by Everything Everywhere ( approved by Ofcom ), by using the 1800MHz spectrum it already owned and beating the other mobile operators to 4G launch by up to a year.
Another issue was the fact that Everything Everywhere surrendered some of its 1800MHz spectrum to Three UK for 4G use. These two points had threatened to halt the 4G auction process as legal threats were abound. The most significant was that O2 threatened to challenge the approval process via the Competition Appeals Tribunal (CAT) in Europe. EE responded accordingly.
The latest according to an article in the Financial Times indicates that the UK government negotiated a one month or more “cooling off time” with EE agreeing to not to roll out its 4G mobile network before further debate. We expect a 4G launch date to be confirmed today by EE and its 4G brand name also as outlined at the start of this article.
We await to hear confirmation today.