European governments that earned billions from
auctions of radio frequencies for third generation mobile
networks will not be so lucky again.
That might not be good news for cash-strapped governments, but
it is likely to be good news for companies and consumers.
"The industry has learned, but so too have governments," Emin
Gurdenli, CTO for
T-Mobile, the Deutsche Telekom mobile subsidiary, and the UK's
most popular mobile network operator (MNO), told Computer
Weekly.
Gurdenli's comment is a reference to what some see as an
unintended
consequence of the 3G auctions - a slow roll-out of high speed
mobile connections by cash-strapped operators.
Gurdenli said governments and regulators were starting to be
more flexible in their thinking with respect to frequency auctions
and subsequent use of them. He said there was greater willingness
to consider permitting sharing of communications assets between
market participants.
"Spectrum is an asset, so why not?" he said.
He said the
present negotiations between the government, Vodafone and O2,
chaired by Broadband Stakeholders Group CEO Kip Meek, to claw back
and resell frequencies in the 900Mhz band, were signs of the
changing perception.
It was also reported that Vodafone and O2 were in talks to
share elements of their mobile networks. Meanwhile Ofcom is
presently consulting on allowing third parties direct access to
BT's core network, starting with BT's wholesale subsidiary
Openreach.
Gurdenli suggested the new vision was driven by a greater
appreciation of the benefits of competition in speeding up the
roll-out of more new services quicker to consumers.
This had to be weighed against profit margins among the
suppliers, he said. Sharing, reselling or renting extra spectrum
would give the licence holder a quicker return than if it had to
fill the capacity by itself, he said.
The licence holder might earn less from renting its frequencies,
but the money would come in quicker. Likewise governments might
give up some money up front in return for taxes from a more robust
market. "In this industry you learn to live with declining
margins," Gurdenli said.