Britain gives go-ahead to 4G Internet

Britain's largest mobile operator can re-purpose its existing spectrum licenses to give the country its first 4G high-speed Internet service, regulators said. Everything Everywhere, formed by the merger of Orange and T-Mobile in 2010, has a surplus of 2G spectrum and applied to Britain communications regulator Ofcom last autumn to reuse some of the spectrum for 4G to create a network that can offer downloads 10 times faster than its 3G network. Ofcom has agreed Everything Everywhere can begin 4G service Sept/ 11, The Daily Telegraph reported. Rival networks like O2 and Videophone, who will have to bid for new spectrum licenses later this year, had opposed Everything Everywhere's spectrum reuse plans but Ofcom ruled the benefits to consumers of having 4G services available sooner outweighed claims it would give Everything Everywhere an unfair advantage. The ruling "will deliver significant benefits to consumers, and there is no material risk that those benefits will be outweighed by a distortion of competition," Ofcom said. Vodafone, however, was critical of Ofcom's decision in favor of Everything Every where's plan. "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 Vodafone spokesman said.