Ofcom approves six companies to bid on 5G spectrum

[HEXUS]

UK's big four operators plus Airspan Spectrum and Connexin will take part in the auctions.

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[Moonister]

Just give us reliable and decent 3g speed first! I still can't even load a webpage in many places in London(!) (e.g. London Bridge between 7-10am and 4-8pm, throttling?!) on 4g plan / S7. and Wales is like a dead zone.

[TheAnimus]

Won't using 5g solve that? More people in less bandwidth.

[jab701]

I find my mobile connection on three is useless in busy areas of London, too many users on one cell tower I believe is the issue!

[Iota]

If mobile operators can't even provide a consistent 3G signal in and around my local area I simply fail to see the point of upgrading to 4G / 5G. It'll cost me more money for the same or worse service, and with a data cap included.

[Smudger]

If mobile operators can't even provide a consistent 3G signal in and around my local area I simply fail to see the point of upgrading to 4G / 5G. It'll cost me more money for the same or worse service, and with a data cap included.

They get to charge you more, which improves profit and share price. Stop being selfish and wanting an actual service.

[qasdfdsaq]

Just give us reliable and decent 3g speed first! I still can't even load a webpage in many places in London(!) (e.g. London Bridge between 7-10am and 4-8pm, throttling?!) on 4g plan / S7. and Wales is like a dead zone.

The whole point of more spectrum is to increase capacity to allow better and more consistent service across all technologies. Whining about the very thing that's going to improve your signal is just stupid.

Telling operators to make speeds better "first" is like telling train operators to reduce overcrowding before allowing them to buy more trains. Spectrum is the very thing that improves speed, reliability, *and* coverage.

[Iota]

They get to charge you more, which improves profit and share price. Stop being selfish and wanting an actual service.

Well, if they want money, they need to provide a decent service first?

[Lord Midas]

Just give us reliable and decent 3g speed first! I still can't even load a webpage in many places in London(!) (e.g. London Bridge between 7-10am and 4-8pm, throttling?!) on 4g plan / S7. and Wales is like a dead zone.

The whole point of more spectrum is to increase capacity to allow better and more consistent service across all technologies. Whining about the very thing that's going to improve your signal is just stupid.

Telling operators to make speeds better "first" is like telling train operators to reduce overcrowding before allowing them to buy more trains. Spectrum is the very thing that improves speed, reliability, *and* coverage.

I was going to say this, but you said it so much more eloquently than I ever could

[peterb]

They get to charge you more, which improves profit and share price. Stop being selfish and wanting an actual service.

And allows them to re-invest in the business to buy more spectrum and/or increase coverage to provide a better service!

[kingpotnoodle]

Just give us reliable and decent 3g speed first!

If mobile operators can't even provide a consistent 3G signal in and around my local area I simply fail to see the point of upgrading to 4G / 5G.

I seriously doubt any operators will be improving 3G coverage much, they will be deploying new 4G equipment so if you want improved reception/coverage you will need to upgrade your phone. 4G/5G improve coverage because they are better technologies, the world needs to move on to make things better.

Backhaul on the other hand is a problem, just the same as with residential broadband providers, there is insufficient bandwidth in some areas to support the cumulative traffic from all clients. That is totally independent of whether the deployed masts are 3G/4G/5G though.

[peterb]

Backhaul on the other hand is a problem, just the same as with residential broadband providers, there is insufficient bandwidth in some areas to support the cumulative traffic from all clients. That is totally independent of whether the deployed masts are 3G/4G/5G though.

Not really, for that volume of traffic operators can run in (or upgrade existing) fibre links or install/upgrade microwave links.

[kingpotnoodle]

Not really, for that volume of traffic operators can run in (or upgrade existing) fibre links or install/upgrade microwave links.

They can do those things, but whether they provision enough bandwidth is another matter. I've often had perfect signal but limited actual throughput due to contention, it's the same problem as residential broadband often suffers.

[Moonister]

And allows them to re-invest in the business to buy more spectrum and/or increase coverage to provide a better service!

are you naive or just have vested interest in profiteering from provision of mobile service?

[Moonister]

The whole point of more spectrum is to increase capacity to allow better and more consistent service across all technologies. Whining about the very thing that's going to improve your signal is just stupid.

Telling operators to make speeds better "first" is like telling train operators to reduce overcrowding before allowing them to buy more trains. Spectrum is the very thing that improves speed, reliability, *and* coverage.

We (customers) are being told the same thing every time a new "essential upgrade" is on the table. 3g....4g...each promising to decongest and improve speed. Yet we keep paying more for less reliable and on average lower speed service. I bet we'll have the same problems with "8g". Yet companies involved keep reporting increasingly "healthy" profits. It's misseling at the very least.

Comparing data services with train service in Britian!? - I couldn't make a better analogy myself! both are borderline scam. Both running "profit first - customer second" kind of service... - operations rubber stamped by the goverment who was sufficiently lobbied / lubricated.

[peterb]

are you naive or just have vested interest in profiteering from provision of mobile service?

Neither - just realistic in the way things work. Spectrum is a limited resource and needs careful regulation. Developing the technology to use it isn't cheap either and the incentive to do so is on the long term return on the initial investment.

Mobile phone costs now are considerable lower than they were, 10, 15 or even 20 years ago.