{"id":946703,"date":"2026-10-30T19:02:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T19:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/946703\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T19:02:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T19:02:16","slug":"ofcom-set-auction-timetable-for-upper-1-4ghz-band-for-uk-4g-and-5g-mobile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/946703\/","title":{"rendered":"Ofcom set auction timetable for Upper 1.4GHz band for UK 4G and 5G mobile"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"5g<\/p>\n

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom<\/a>, has today revealed the timetable and new details of their plan to auction off a 25MHz (frequency) slice of the 1.4GHz radio spectrum band (i.e. the \u201cUpper Block\u201d of 1492 to 1517MHz) to mobile operators (EE<\/a>, O2<\/a> and Vodafone<\/a>, Three UK<\/a>) for use in their 4G<\/a> and 5G<\/a> based mobile broadband services.<\/p>\n

Just to recap. The lower part (40MHz) of the L-Band (1452 to 1492MHz) is already being used by VodafoneThree to boost their mobile data connectivity (example<\/a>), albeit mostly as a Supplemental Downlink (SDL) solution. But Ofcom<\/a> has long been working to clear and re-purpose the frequency between 1492 to 1517MHz (here<\/a>) for use by mobile operators.<\/p>\n

The advantage of 1.4GHz is in the fact that it\u2019s a nicely balanced band that can deliver both a fairly strong level of coverage and faster data speeds, albeit only if the device being used is actually able to harness that band. Suffice to say that this could make it useful for boosting coverage both indoors and across rural areas (lower frequency signals travel further than higher frequency ones).<\/p>\n

\"Ofcom<\/p>\n

However, Ofcom<\/a>\u2019s plan to auction the upper block of 1.4GHz to mobile operators does note that it sits just below part of the 1.5GHz band, which is being used by Inmarsat\u2018s emergency communication satellite<\/a> terminals (i.e. on ships at and near ports, and on aircraft around airports). As such Ofcom\u2019s plan introduces some temporary limitations on how and where the band can be harnessed.<\/p>\n

For example, use of this spectrum will be subject to limits on mobile transmissions around the coastline and at certain international airports. Ofcom will relax these limits around the coastline on 1st January 2043, and around airports on 1st January 2034. In addition, the award winner will not be authorised to begin using 1492-1517MHz for mobile services before 11th June 2027.<\/p>\n

The latest development<\/a> today is that the regulator has published the necessary regulations and final auction details for the new band. Ofcom also revealed that the spectrum will be awarded as a single 25 MHz block through a single-round, sealed-bid auction. The application window will open in mid-January 2027 (not before 14th January 2027), and the auction will conclude by the end of February 2027.<\/p>\n

We suspect VodafoneThree will strongly desire to acquire the block nearest to their existing spectrum holding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today revealed the timetable and new details of their plan to auction…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":946704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[35529,9539,64,63,203,438501,514084,13976,105],"class_list":["post-946703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-4g","tag-5g","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mobile","tag-mobile-broadband","tag-ofcom-regulation","tag-satellite","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=946703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/946704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}