Everything Everywhere Calls Off Spectrum Lawsuit

Everything Everywhere – the UK’s largest mobile operator, formed by the merger of Orange and T-Mobile – has agreed to drop a lawsuit against the government over its auction of the next-generation wireless spectrum.

The operator threatened legal action back in August, after government legislation dealing with the distribution of radio spectrum did not include a cap on the amount of low frequency spectrum that one operator can own. Everything Everywhere feared that this would enable rivals Vodafone and O2 to grab the majority of the spectrum.

However, Tom Alexander, chief executive of Everything Everywhere, has said he will withdraw the threat of legal action following intensive discussions with the government. The company will continue to put pressure on Ofcom to draw up auction rules that place a cap on the amount of airwaves that one operator can own.

“We have decided to withdraw our threatened legal action and are content to take our chances when it comes to influencing the rules for future spectrum auctions,” Everything Everywhere told the Financial Times.

Radio Spectrum Auction

In its Comprehensive Spending Review last month, the government confirmed that the much-delayed auction of low frequency spectrum at the 800MHz bandwidth would take place in 2011-2012. The announcement came after Communications Minister Ed Vaizey (left) promised back in June that the UK’s mobile industry would “have access to the 21st Century infrastructure it needs to give UK consumers the latest technologies”.

At least 500MHz of public sector spectrum below 5GHz will also be released over the next ten years for new mobile communications, including mobile broadband, the Review stated.

In response to the news that Everything Everywhere would not be suing the government, Vaizey said: “I am delighted Tom Alexander took a pragmatic view and saw the bigger picture. We are now in a very good place to move forward.”

The way is now clear for the government to begin its overhaul of the UK’s broadband infrastructure. The government has pledged to invest £530 million to enable the roll out of superfast broadband in areas that the private sector would not otherwise reach, more than half of which will come from the BBC licence fee. This figure could rise to £830 million by 2017, according to Chancellor George Osborne.

UK to lead next-gen broadband?

BT has already pledged to invest £2.5 billion in rolling out fibre to around two thirds of UK homes by 2015. The company believes that the commitment will help to make the UK one of the best connected countries in the world for next-generation broadband.

However, there is still a long way to go, after Akamai’s latest quarterly State of the Internet report revealed that the average broadband speed in the UK is just 3.9Mbps, and while 83 percent of the country now receives speeds in excess of 2Mbps only 17 percent of the country has a connection of 5Mbps or better.

Britain fared slightly better in Cisco’s recent broadband leadership study, in which it was ranked 18th worldwide. However, Cisco admitted that the study had not taken into account broadband quality and penetration in rural areas of the UK.