Further to the meeting held by Peter Mandelson with all 5 major network providers to have a Spectrum reframe (to hit Labour's Mobile broadband targets by 2012).
T-Mobile and Orange are now telling the UK regulator that they do not want to give up spectrum in exchange for regulatory approval of their planned merger. This isn’t going to please OFCOM as the merger will have 37% of mobile customers and over 50% of all available spectrum.
It will be unlikely that Vodafone and 02 will give up any of the 900mhz bandwidth if T-Mobile and Orange are not going to let go of any of their spectrum to meet Mandelson's 2012 targets. It should be remembered that there is a General election coming up next year which could change things!
What is Spectrum?
According to Wikipedia it is "the range of all possible frequencies of electromagnetic radiation". For more information read the Ofcom pdf relating to the Frequency Allocation Table which contains 224 pages of further info.
Author: Simon Hunt
Position: Telecommunications Consultant with 21C Telecom