UK mobile operators will have the opportunity to acquire 40 MHz of L-band spectrum after US chipmaker Qualcomm said it planned to sell the airwaves following regulatory changes.
Qualcomm acquired its L-band licence – in the range of 1452 -1492 MHz…
UK mobile operators will have the opportunity to acquire 40 MHz of L-band spectrum after US chipmaker Qualcomm said it planned to sell the airwaves following regulatory changes.
Qualcomm acquired its L-band licence – in the range of 1452 -1492 MHz – from Ofcom in 2008 for £8.3m (US$16m). It is now expected to be sold for many times that price, with one industry consultant telling TelecomFinance it could achieve a sale price in the triple-digit millions.
The decision to offload the frequencies follows decisions by the European Commission and Ofcom to allow the L-band to be used for supplemental downlink (SDL), which provides additional capacity for mobile broadband. The EC harmonised and mandated the spectrum for mobile broadband use, and Ofcom then altered the terms of Qualcomm’s licence to allow SDL to be deployed.
Commenting on potential buyers for the frequencies, Lee Sanders, a partner at spectrum consultancy Aetha Consulting, said: “As a supplementary downlink, L-band needs to be aggregated with another band, in this case the 800 MHz band. So, the current four owners of 800 MHz spectrum – EE, O2, Three and Vodafone – are the likely candidates. Given that EE and Three have much less low-frequency spectrum than the other two, I’d expect them to be favourites”.
Pointing to Germany’s ongoing spectrum auction, Sanders said the current L-Band spectrum price – when converted into sterling and adjusted for population – meant Qualcomm’s spectrum could be worth £135m.
