News
Country’s smallest mobile operator says Ofcom should prevent any player owning more than 30% of available spectrum.
3UK has stepped up its campaign to limit the amount of spectrum its larger rivals can acquire during Ofcom’s next spectrum auction, drawing ire from Vodafone.
The Telegraph reported on Saturday that 3UK chief executive Dave Dyson has called on the regulator to prevent any single operator owning more than a 30% share of the country’s mobile airwaves.
Ofcom plans to auction 40 MHz of spectrum in the 2.3 GHz band and 150 MHz in the 3.4 GHz band later this year. It has set a reserve price of £70 million (€97 million) for the frequencies.
According to the Telegraph, Dyson wants 42% of the available spectrum to be allocated to smaller players, preventing larger operators from using their relative strength to effectively shut companies like 3 out of the auction.
With around 9 million customers, 3UK is the smallest of the country’s four major operators. Its attempt to scale up – both in terms of customers and spectrum – by merging with O2 was blocked by the European Commission on grounds that it would harm competition.
"Our proposal is not that we get the spectrum below market value, but that we pay a fair price relative to the scale of the business. It is a scale game. You can afford to pay more if you have a bigger customer base," Dyson said, in the report.
Unsurprisingly, Dyson’s proposal has not found favour with 3UK’s larger rivals.
"Of course we will oppose it, and we are looking at it now," said Vodafone UK chief Jeroen Hoencamp, in the report.
According to the Telegraph’s sources, EE parent BT will file a legal challenge against any attempt to rebalance operators’ spectrum holdings.
