The U.K. telecoms regulator has given the go-ahead to the transfer of Qualcomm’s L-band spectrum to Vodafone and 3UK.
"We do not consider that either of the proposed transfers raises sufficient competition issues to justify further analysis," Ofcom said on Wednesday.
The regulator said it reached its decision after conducting an initial analysis of the two deals.
Qualcomm last month confirmed that it had agreed to sell 40 MHz of spectrum to the mobile operators, but did not disclose further details of the deals, including the price.
There was no indication of the value of the deal from Ofcom either, but the regulator fleshed out the details a little, noting that Vodafone will take ownership of the 1542 MHz-1772 MHz frequencies and 3UK the 1472 MHz-1492 MHz.
The operators bought the spectrum after the EU decided to allocate the L-band for use as supplemental downlink (SDL) to boost 4G capacity.
As part of its investigation, Ofcom looked at whether the deals would create asymmetries in the allocation of spectrum in the U.K. , but concluded that they would not, given that on completion of the deals both Vodafone and 3UK would still have less spectrum than rival EE (see chart).
The regulator noted that a case can be made for the L band to be considered as low-frequency spectrum, since it is similar to the 800 MHz and 900 MHz bands. This could be an issue, since Vodafone already holds the maximum permitted amount of sub-1 GHz spectrum, Ofcom said.
However, it ruled that in either case the spectrum transfer would not distort competition and therefore elected to refrain from making a decision on the classification of the L band. 
