UK planning further spectrum sell off

This is an apparent reference to the area of spectrum in the 2.5-2.69 GHz band, normally referred to as the 'O' reserved for expansion of 3G under the rules for IMT-2000 (the international standard for 3G).

The Business argues that the UK Chancellor, Gordon Brown, maybe hoping that the sell-off will raise something near the £22.5 billion that was obtained from the sale of British 3G licences.

The article quotes an Ofcom spokesman as saying, "We believe that auctions are the best way of bringing spectrum to market." The UK mobile network operators which were almost crippled by the previous sale definitely won't agree.

The interesting point here is that Ofcom has previously told the INQ that future spectrum sales will be technology agnostic. That is to say, that it won't insist that a specific scheme - such as W-CDMA - must be used at a particular frequency.

This means that instead of being used to increase 3G networks' capacity, it might be employed for something completely different - such as WiMax. The main WiMax frequency bands are 2.5 GHz, 3. 5 GHz, and 5. 8 GHz, but countries in Asia Pacific have already consider this spectrum for WiMax.

The report suggested this new spectrum could be used for 4G, but the current state of thinking is that all the technologies which are aiming to provide a 4G service - like OFDM - will be in the 3.6 GHz frequency.

This is the frequency at which UWB (Ultra Wide Band) technologies are most likely to operate and UWB is definitely in the running for 4G.

This news won't sit well with operators like Vodafone, which are already struggling to sell their 3G services to pay back the original licences. µ