UK regulator Ofcom today started 4G Auction Process by taking the application from the potential bidders along with an initial deposit of £100,000. All applications will be reviewed by Ofcom to check that the applicants are qualified to take part in the auction. 

Ofcom  plans to announce the names of all successful applicants before the end of the year or early in the New Year. Bidding will then start in January 2013 and is likely to take place over a number of weeks before the final result of the auction is known. Ofcom expects 4G LTE  mobile services to be available to consumers from a range of different mobile phone companies later in the year. UK operator EE's LTE coverage is already available in 11 UK cities.

Bidders will be competing for spectrum in two separate bands – 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz. The lower frequency 800 MHz band is part of the ‘digital dividend’ freed up when analogue terrestrial TV was switched off, which is ideal for widespread mobile coverage.

The higher frequency 2.6 GHz band is ideal for delivering the capacity needed to deliver faster speeds to large numbers of consumers in towns and cities across the UK. These two bands add up to 250 MHz of additional mobile spectrum, compared to 333 MHz in use today. Both bands are being packaged into smaller lots so that they can be acquired by multiple operators.