O2 kicks off London LTE trial
UK regulator claims auctions are on track as eBay blasts the country's mobile broadband progress
Published: 14 November, 2011
READ MORE: Spectrum | UK | O2 (UK) | Backhaul | LTE
The UK has been sliding further behind its European neighbors in plans for LTE networks, and the delays to its spectrum auctions, as well as holes in its 3G coverage, are attracting rising criticism from companies and politicians. The latest is eBay, which warned on Friday that erratic 3G speeds and coverage are costing the UK economy as much as £1.29bn a year in lost sales, because of the poor experience for mobile commerce. As if to reassure such players that the UK will soon start to catch up with 4G frontrunners like Sweden, O2 has announced the country's latest LTE trial, this time in London.
According to eBay, such moves are becoming urgent. The ecommerce giant submitted a 'mobile manifesto' to UK regulator Ofcom, in response to a consultation on the planned auctions, saying: "The reliability of mobile broadband currently significantly inhibits m-commerce sales.
"At eBay in the UK we now see around 10% of sales by value transacted on mobile devices, but we need the right infrastructure in the UK to match this demand," commented an eBay VP, Miriam Lahage, but according to the firm, Ofcom neglected m-commerce issues during its consultation.
While it singled out other LTE-enabled services for their potential boost to the economy - including video streaming, social networking, gaming, instant messaging and email - it did not mention the impact of 4G on mobile retail growth. "M-commerce sales are already worth some £1.35bn to the UK economy, and are set to grow 14fold over the next 10 years to £19.26bn," estimates eBay (based on calculations by retail analyst firm Verdict Research. "It is therefore essential for Ofcom to seriously consider the interests of m-commerce when considering what regulatory approach to take towards mobile broadband provision." Verdict found that 64% of consumers saw connection speed as a "significant barrier" to m-commerce, while 63% said the same about network reliability, 62% about cost and 52% about coverage.
Despite all this negativity, Ofcom CEO Ed Richards said last week that its plans to auction 2.6GHz and 800MHz spectrum in the fourth quarter of 2012 remains "on schedule". And O2 has added a London trial to a handful of LTE pilots being run by other cellcos, mainly in rural areas. O2 says it will use the trial in the capital to assess network behaviour, consumer response and to shape its plans for commercial roll-out. The pilot will take place over 25 cell sites in the 2.6GHz band, within an area of 40 square kilometres, and will last for nine months. It will be an extension of an existing O2 test network around its home base of Slough, west of London. The cellco will provide participants with Samsung B3730 dongles, supporting speeds of up to 100Mbps, as well as 4G personal hotspots and handsets from a number of other vendors. The O2 Arena, the large venue in east London which the carrier sponsors, will have its own dedicated 4G internal and external sites.
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