Ofcom Gives Go-Ahead For 4G Mobile Services

4G mobile services could appear much sooner than expected after Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, has allowed Orange and T-Mobile to use its existing bandwidth to launch the fourth-generation (4G) services.

Ofcom said the move would deliver "significant benefits" to consumers that outweigh any competition concerns.

Everything Everywhere, the owners of the Orange and T-Mobile networks, will be allowed to offer 4G services from 11 September, but, as the regulator pointed out, the timing will be a commercial decision for the company itself.

Other networks will have to wait until next year for an auction of 4G bandwidth.

Vodafone and O2 expressed surprise and disappointment at the announcement.

Everything Everywhere itself said the regulator's decision was "great news for the UK".

"4G will drive investment, employment and innovation and we look forward to making it available later this year, delivering superfast mobile broadband to the UK," the company said.

Competitors however were less pleased at the news.

A spokesperson for O2 said: "We are hugely disappointed with today's announcement, which will mean the majority of customers will be excluded from the first wave of digital services."

Vodafone said it was "shocked" at Ofcom's decision.

"The regulator has shown a careless disregard for the best interests of consumers, businesses and the wider economy through its refusal to properly regard the competitive distortion created by allowing one operator to run services before the ground has been laid for a fully competitive 4G market," a company spokesperson said.

(H)