Everything Everywhere will reinvest all profits from spectrum sale in UK network

The announcement echoes a recent call from a committee of MPs

Mobile operator Everything Everywhere (EE) has responded to a report from MPs stating it should not benefit from the spectrum auction, by saying that it will reinvest any profit it makes from the sale of its 1800MHz spectrum back into UK networks.

The report released last week by the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee stated that any money EE made should not be kept as pure profit as the spectrum was a public asset that was given to the company for free.

EE, which rose out of the merger of T-Mobile and Orange, is having to sell 25 per cent of its 1800MHz spectrum in order to comply with EU competition law.

"As part of the merger of Orange and T-mobile to create Everything Everywhere, we are required to sell some 1800MHz spectrum, for which we pay £33m in licence fees to the government each year," said an EE spokesperson.

"It is our intention that all proceeds from the sale of this spectrum will be invested into our UK network to benefit our customers across the country."

The Financial Times has estimated that the spectrum is worth about £450m, but EE has said that the likely worth of the spectrum is too "commercially sensitive" for it to speculate on.