Culture secretary urges mobile operators to ditch differences ahead of 4G auction

Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has criticised market players for holding back the UK's migration to superfast broadband and new 4G networks.

In a speech to the Royal Television Society, Hunt said the UK needs to be innovative when allocating 4G spectrum licences and that market players should not hold up the proceedings.

"The volume of mobile internet data is tripling every year, and we expect it to increase 26-fold by 2015. We must assume that whether at home or on the move, the devices people use to access the internet will be mobile from now on," he said.

"So, we must press on as quickly as possible with the 4G auction. Sweden completed its auction in 2009, Germany did the same last year, Italy is auctioning its this week, and France will complete this year. Mobile phone operators must put aside competitive differences and work together in their common – and our national – interest to make this happen."

Ofcom recently said it was likely to delay the spectrum auction for 4G licences from the first quarter of 2012 to the first half of 2012.

Three, the UK's smallest network operator, has spoken out against the decision, claiming the larger networks are holding up the proceedings by threatening legal action.

And in June this year, O2 issued a response to Ofcom's proposals for the 4G auction, claiming it would be illegal under EU law because they constitute state aid.

"In addition, I want to look closely at how we can meet this massively increasing demand through better allocation and management of spectrum," said Hunt.

"We must make it easier for smaller companies to access spectrum, encourage more spectrum trading and maximise the benefits of licence-exempt spectrum in a way that has worked really well for technologies such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth."

Hunt also brought into question the amount of time BT is taking to establish pricing for competitors to access its ducts and poles, dubbed physical infrastructure access (PIA), as it is likely that this is slowing down a competitive broadband rollout.

"I am a strong believer that competition is the biggest driver of investment both at the retail and infrastructure level. But I do not believe the market is working as well as it should," explained Hunt.

"Reaching a satisfactory conclusion on PIA prices for the use of BT's ducts and poles is taking too long. PIA has to be sorted out – and quickly – in a way that allows fair competition with different providers able to invest in our broadband infrastructure," he added.

"It's also important that we have a properly competitive market in retail fibre. In the coming months I will be working closely with Ofcom to make sure we make progress in these areas."

Hunt also said that other governments are "doing much better than us" with superfast broadband rollout, where countries such as Singapore plan to achieve universal access to one gigabit.

The government pledged £530m last November to ensure that 90 per cent of households in each local authority could access superfast broadband as part of its Comprehensive Spending Review.

The first wave of the government's funding was agreed in October 2010 for four pilot projects – in North Yorkshire, Herefordshire, Cumbria and the Highlands – to establish a model for broadband provision in rural areas. Each project was allocated between £5m and £10m.

Further projects in Devon and Somerset, Wiltshire and Norfolk were unveiled in May 2011.