back to article 4G über-auction coming next year

Ofcom has started consultations on how to run the biggest spectrum auction the UK has ever seen, though it seems maintaining the status quo is the name of the game. The mega-auction includes 250MHz of spectrum, much of which is released by the switch to digital television (the "digital dividend"). Ofcom is hoping the sell-off …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Spread spectrum?

    Isn't this technology a spread-spectrum thing? Why can't they give the same block of spectrum to all the operators, and let their use of it be determined by the number of customers they have? The more "3" handsets in a given cell compared to "Voda", the more of the available bandwidth "3" will end up with.

    OK, so I'm probably missing something here...

    1. Blofeld's Cat
      Unhappy

      Er yes...

      The thing you're overlooking is that this is not about coverage, operators or customers.

      This is about how much money the government can raise - and how quickly it can raise it.

    2. Mage Silver badge

      Spread Spectrum?

      "Isn't this technology a spread-spectrum thing? Why can't they give the same block of spectrum to all the operators, and let their use of it be determined by the number of customers they have? "

      CDMA-1, EVDO, FOMA, 3G/HSPA/UMTS/W-CDMA and CDMA2000 are all spread spectrum. There is no free lunch. Google Cell Breathing. On 3G each operator uses 3 x 5MHz + 5MHz separate channels, or it would be rubbish.

      LTE is like DAB, WiMax, DTT , it doesn't use Spread Spectrum, but OFDM.

      The off quoted 100Mbps is for ONE user only connected, in one sector, on a 20MHz + 20MHz channel with a perfect signal. Cell Edge is 0.6Mbps with only a SINGLE connection in Use.

      To make a cellular network you need a minimum of THREE different channels, and 6 or 9 is much much better.

      To get more capacity you need more channels or much smaller cells. Random isn't evenly distributed. So with smaller cells and more operators, it's more likely some have too many people and some have only 1 or 2.

      See http://www.radioway.info/comparewireless/

      and http://www.techtir.ie/comms

      various nearly accurate Wikipedia articles on all this too.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    Long live

    Long live 27.78125 MHz

    1. Julian 3
      Thumb Up

      10-4

      19 a rig check......

  3. fixit_f
    Thumb Down

    Tell you what

    I live around London and I'm on O2 - and I have virtually never seen even 3G availability on my phone. If they can't sort that out around the capital city ten years after they started selling 3G handsets, what are the timescales likely to be for realistic 4g rollout?

    These technologies are just marketing spin - most of the telcos don't seem to have the infrastructure to back it up as they don't seem to have planned for the increase in mobile data usage. Most people get GPRS speeds if they're lucky still.

    1. mike panero

      I was going to say

      I don't know about no 3G (UMTS? thingy) but the "speed" seems to be the same as GPRS

      LTE == Long Time, Eventually ?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Auction

    What kind of auction is this then?

    Four Items for sale.

    Four Bidders.

    Only one bidder per item.

    Hmm I forsee a total raised of £4.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Paris Hilton

      Unless

      Unless it starts at 99p each then there won't be a listing fee.

  5. alwall
    Thumb Up

    TV anyone?

    Reactionary thought, but how about using TV frequencies for............TV?

    More spectrum is needed for HD channels.

    The commercialisation of Freeview means that we are unlikely to get rid of poor quality +1 and shopping channels unfortunately.

  6. Mage Silver badge
    Alert

    Stupidity.

    Words fail me.

    LTE needs 120MHz + 120MHz to even think of being decent.

    You need Shared RAN (wholesale). This makes the speed on poorest Mast sectors up to x5 better.

    Tax profits. Not Roll out cost (Big Licences).

    Tax Mobile use x8 more than Fixed Wireless.

  7. Shonko Kid
    Alert

    "..certainly won't raise the £22bn..."

    Awww, can't all the netops bid themselves out of existence? Don't they know the taxpayer will bail them out, I mean mobile telecomms are almost as essential to modern society as the bankers!

  8. PaulMacnicol
    Go

    Following Tim Berners Lee's dream

    The internet has open protocols at it's heart, and open source software permeates every area of the network - except for the last mile. How about setting aside some of the spectrum for public use, so that we can build our own networks using Femtocells?

    If you think about it, there is no need to have a telecom carrier if this single obstacle is overcome - it's basically the only reason why we can't just buy a box, stick an aerial up, mesh with our neighbours and share our internet connections as required.

    Unfortunately in the UK they are used to the massive injection of funds through auctioning the spectrum and so freeing up some of the spectrum will probably never happen, but smaller, less developed countries with more available spectrum will no doubt benefit from this compelling concept

    http://openbts.sourceforge.net/ details how this has been achieved on the tiny island of Nuie, fascinating reading

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