Everything Everywhere hits back at rivals over 4G campaign

Mobile operator says rivals may not be willing to invest in 4G

Mobile operator Everything Everywhere (EE) has hit back at rival operators O2, Vodafone and Three for suggesting that its 4GBritain website is designed solely to advance its own interests.

Yesterday, its rivals suggested that the campaign was not about raising awareness, as claimed, but about EE launching a 4G service before its competitors.

An EE spokeswoman told Computing that the 4GBritain website was launched to raise awareness and to speed up the implementation of 4G in the UK

"4GBritain is not really a campaign, it is a website. It is to raise awareness of 4G so people understand the technology, and its secondary purpose is to ensure that 4G is brought to the UK and ensure that it does not take a few more years before this is possible," she said.

The spokeswoman added that EE has applied to use its existing 1800MHz spectrum to deliver 4G services but that the provision of the network is costly.

"EE has applied to use its 1800MHz to roll out a 4G network and is committed to invest £1.5bn over the next four years in bringing it up to scratch. 4G is not just going to come from the release of spectrum [after the spectrum auction scheduled for the end of 2012], operators need to invest in it and it is expensive," she explained.

EE's rivals are opposed to EE using its existing 1800MHz spectrum to deliver 4G services, persuading regulator Ofcom to extend its consultation period.

However EE's spokeswoman suggested that other mobile operators are not yet willing to invest in 4G and that O2 and Vodafone, who own all of the 900MHz band, could have liberalised their share of the spectrum.

Everything Everywhere hits back at rivals over 4G campaign

Mobile operator says rivals may not be willing to invest in 4G

"If O2 and Vodafone wanted to [open up the 900MHz spectrum for 4G services] they could have. Instead of clearing some of it for more 3G, they could have put it towards 4G services. There are other options aside from liberalising [varying for the use of other services, such as 4G] the 1800MHz spectrum.

"If they had a willingness to invest then they could use their 900MHz after liberalisation to roll out 4G on a small scale as we are looking to do with our 1800MHz spectrum," she said.

In response, a Vodafone spokesman told Computing that the 900MHz spectrum is full and that it was not ready to be exploited.

"The 900MHz spectrum is full and would take years to clear and even if it was not, no kit exists in order to use it for 4G services. Even Ofcom have acknowledged that it would take many years to develop the network and handset kit in order to exploit 900MHz," he said.

An O2 spokesman added: "As the whole industry knows, there are no devices compatible with 4G on the 900MHz band. There is such little 900MHz spectrum in Europe that it doesn't make commercial sense for the manufacturers to build the handsets to support it. And that is not going to change."

EE spokeswoman also attacked Vodafone for saying that EE holds 83 per cent of the 1800MHz mobile spectrum.

"It is important to note that when T-Mobile and Orange merged two years ago, one of the conditions was to sell 25 per cent of our 1800MHz spectrum. We are in the process of selling that. The 83 per cent quoted doesn't take into account the fact that we're re-directing 25 per cent of it," she said.

EE said that it is still encouraging its rivals to support its 4GBritain website.

However, O2, Vodafone and Three have all told Computing that they have no intention of backing the 4GBritian initiative.