Weekly Wrap: Operators are the winners in the UK’s mmWave auction

It’s difficult not to see the auction results as a victory for operators, who have paid very little for a large chunk of spectrum. All three incumbent mobile operators – EE, O2 and the newly merged VodafoneThree – each won 1,800 MHz of spectrum in the 26 and 40 GHz bands for just £13 million.

The auction has been the subject of controversy in recent months, as the vast majority of European handsets can’t use ultra-high frequencies. How can UK consumers benefit when only US iPhone models support mmWave, and Samsung and Google Pixel smartphones follow suit?

Even this may be changing. Apple announced in September that it would be dropping mmWave support, covering 26 GHz and 40 GHz, in the US and worldwide versions of the upcoming iPhone Air.

When the biggest phone manufacturer in the world seems to be turning its back on mmWave, it is sure to create a sense of uncertainty around an auction for these high bands, in a country whose mobile users seem unlikely to benefit from it.

Another significant aspect of this auction is the absence of authorisations that cover the entire country. Gone is the need to default to national licences; those awarded this week only cover 68 “high-density” areas – such as London and Birmingham – and transport hubs like Stansted Airport.

For the rest of the country, the regulator Ofcom’s shared access licence regime will be available for private networks, allowing multiple users to make use of mmWave frequencies. Ofcom has made clear that sharing spectrum, geographically or in other ways, is a top priority. This auction could become a template for future spectrum assignments.

A look at the PolicyTracker Spectrum Database shows that this is the fourth lowest price paid per MHz per Pop on record for 26 GHz spectrum.

The only countries where the price has been cheaper than the UK are Brazil, Costa Rica, and Israel – all of which sold for less.

But on an even broader level, even without adjusting for inflation, this is the cheapest spectrum auction for any UK mobile band. At just 0.0005 $/MHz/Pop, it works out cheaper than the 3.3-3.8 GHz auction of 2020 and even the 800 MHz auction of 2013.

The above graph shows UK mobile band auction values from the past decade.

You can read the full story about the auction here and compare data on spectrum pricing in the PolicyTracker Spectrum Database, which covers spectrum allocation, assignment and licence prices in 150 countries and territories.

Information can be accessed through our interactive web-based database or the Data Explorer function.

Here’s what else PolicyTracker covered this week:

• Growing risks from interference have led to “backup bands” being studied ahead of WRC-27The World Radiocommunication Conference (W… for sea surface temperature measurements
• The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has identified 5 MHz of L-band spectrum for release to auction
• The European Space Agency is looking at possible methods of tracing radio interference affecting receivers of signals from space
• Questions have been raised about Peru’s recent auction, which could be considered both a cashless auction and a beauty contest