Qualcomm on Friday kept quiet about a report that it has raised more than £100 million from the sale of its L-band spectrum in the U.K. to Vodafone and 3.
Sources cited in a report by The Times earlier on Friday said that competition for the airwaves was fierce, with the two mobile operators fending off rival bids from EE and O2.
At the time of writing, Qualcomm was unavailable for comment.
Until Friday, the U.S.-based chip maker’s Qualcomm UK Spectrum (QUKS) subsidiary held 40 MHz of L-band spectrum, which falls in the 1452 MHz-1492 MHz range.
It paid £8.34 million for the frequencies in 2008 for R&D purposes, not, as some reports suggested, to carry its abortive MediaFLO mobile TV service.
Qualcomm confirmed in June that it planned to sell the spectrum, after the European Commission ruled that L-band airwaves could be used for supplemental downlink (SDL) to boost 4G capacity.
If The Times report is anything to go by, then Qualcomm has just reaped a substantial windfall from the frequencies.
