5G Bandwidth Auction in UK
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5G will be delivered (in UK) using a mix of 3 spectrum bands :

  1. 700Mhz - to provide the coverage over large areas of the UK
  2. 3.4GHz - 3.8GHz - to provide capacity for 5G in the large demand urban areas. This frequency does not pass through walls as well as lower frequencies but does have much greater capacity
  3. 24GHz / 40GHz to provide ultra high capacity in small cells.

The first stages of the OfCom auctions was for bandwidth at 700MHZ and for frequency between 3.4GHz - 3.8GHz. The auction for 3.4GHz to 3.8GHz was complicated as THREE already owned some spectrum at the higher end of this range following their purchase of UKBroadband. Additionally post auctions, there was some negotiation between the operators ro ensure their allocations were in a single block, where possible. The table below indicates the frequencies purchased by the 4 mobile operators.

 700MHz3.4-3.8GHz
O210MHz80MHz
VodafoneNone90MHz
EE10Mhz80MHz
Three10MHz140MHz
  1. O2 now have a single block of 80MHz block in the 3.4-3.8GHz range. As part of the 5G auction O2 purchased a block of 40MHz at 2300MHz for 4G use
  2. Vodafone have 2 separate 40MHz blocks in the 3.4-3.8GHz range. They did not purchase any frequency at 700MHz and are planning to use their 900MHz frequency when 3G is switched off.
  3. EE also have 2 blocks of 40MHz in the higher range.
  4. Three bought the least, one block of 40MHz but they already owned a lot of this frequency following their purchase of UKBroadband. So they have an additional continuous block of 100MHz for 5G use.

Currently (beginning of 2024) all 4 networks are building out their 5G network and have a population coverage of around 60% of the population. The geographical coverage is less. Vodafone (in particular) cover less of the geographical area as they do not have any suitable frequency for large coverage but this will come in early 2024 when their 3G network is switched off and the frequency re-farmed to 5G. In recent surveys THREE and EE have the best 5G network coverage. To get some of the significant uRLLC and mMTC application we will have to wait until some 26GHz frequency is released.