4G mobile broadband could be available this year, says Ofcom

Everything Everywhere wants to change spectrum use to 4G

Ultra-fast 4G mobile broadband could be available in the UK this year, according communications regulator Ofcom.

Mobile operator Everything Everywhere has submitted an application to Ofcom to use its existing spectrum to deliver 4G services.

If the mobile operator is successful, customers could benefit from faster mobile broadband speeds and wider mobile broadband coverage in rural areas.

"Ofcom has considered whether allowing Everything Everywhere to use this spectrum in this way would distort competition, and provisionally concluded that it would not," Ofcom said in a statement.

Other interested parties have four weeks to submit their views to Ofcom.

Trials for 4G technology have already taken place in the UK.

In October last year, BT and Everything Everywhere shared their fixed-line and mobile technology to provide broadband to 180 customers living around St Newlyn East, near Newquay, Cornwall.

According to the companies, the trial has successfully demonstrated that fixed and mobile technologies can work together to provide faster broadband in remote rural areas.

In January, Ofcom agreed to extend the two companies' 4G LTE trial licence until June 2012.