The new proposed annual licence fees will apply from February 2023 building on the 42 lots of 28GHz spectrum released in 2000. The regulator said its goal was to “align regional annual licence fees so that a single fee applies for all 28 GHz spectrum”.
In 2008, Ofcom auctioned the unallocated 2 x 112 MHz regional packages as three sub-national lots, plus two contiguous national lots of 2 x 112 MHz. The two national lots were won and are still held by Arqiva while the sub-national 17 licence is now held by Vodafone and the sub-national 28 and 39 licences are held by UK Broadband. Additionally, six locations from the sub-national 2 and subnational 3 licences were subsequently traded from UKB to Arqiva.
FIND OUT MORE: OFCOM ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR SPECTRUM AUCTIONS AND A CONSULTATION ON SPECTRUM SHARING
The 10 GHz spectrum was auctioned in 10 national lots in 2008 with eight lots allocated to T Mobile and this spectrum is now held by Mobile Broadband Network. Alongside this, two lots were allocated to Digiweb and this spectrum is now held by the Joint Radio Company.
The 32 GHz spectrum was auctioned in six national lots of 2 x 126 MHz in 2008 with two lots won by T Mobile and now held by MBNL. Two lots were won by Orange Personal Communications Services that has since been traded to EE. Finally, one lot was won by MLL Telecom and one lot was won by BT.
Alongside the new licence fees, Ofcom has announced that more radio services will be able to take to the airwaves under the regulator’s new approach to licensing and spectrum allocation for ‘restricted’ radio service including hospital radio, drive-in movie soundtracks and commentary for outdoor events such as air shows. This will see Ofcom move existing low-power restricted service licensees to a limited coverage frequency, where one is available, on renewal of their licences as Stoke Mandeville Hospital (pictured above) has applied for as part of a test pilot.
