Ofcom has published a second consultation on allocation of spectrum for 4th-generation mobile networks in the UK. The consultation proposes to oblige those networks that buy 4G licences to provide near-universal UK 4G coverage. It’s an obligation which will be costly for the network operators, which will tend to depress the market for 4G network services, and which, I suggest, is based on two misconceptions.The first is that there is a pressing need for universal availability of the kind of services that 4G wireless supports. There is a real problem of not-spots, but that is essentially a mobile voice services problem. While there is still a problem of getting high speed data services in remote areas, that problem isn’t primarily one requiring the kind of full mobility that licensed-spectrum mobile networks offer. Wired access, or nomadic access over WiFi, would meet most of the demand. Our government is already commiting national resources to improving rural wired broadband: the benefits of reinforcing that with universal access to full-mobility wireless data services would be very marginal.
Ofcom’s second misconception is that ’4G’ means either GSM LTE or WiMAX. Talking to network operators, I get a view that those technologies will remain for quite some time as infill technologies for high-value areas, and that the greater part of 4G coverage will be achieved by integrating WiFi hotspots into heterogeneous telco networks. HetNets fit well with the network operators’ desire to offload data traffic from their core networks. They work with existing smartphones. Most importantly, they don’t require the network operators to invest in either new RAN technology or licences from Ofcom.
The case for a HetNet approach to 4G data services makes sense for the network operators and for the UK: in these straitened times, the last thing that we need is for the network operators to spend our citizens’ money on paper licences for LTE. Let our national resources go to fixing the broadband problem, and let the full-mobility solution follow when times are easier.
