UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has published a decision confirming it will allow the UK subsidiary of Qualcomm to transfer two tranches of spectrum in the 1400MHz band to Vodafone UK and Hutchison 3G UK (Three UK), respectively.
In late-August this year Ofcom received a notice of the proposed spectrum transfer from Qualcomm, in which the latter said it was looking to hand over the rights and obligations related to the 1452MHz-1472MHz block to Vodafone UK, while doing the same for the 1472MHz-1492MHz block to Three UK.
As part of its examination of the proposal Ofcom launched a consultation which ended on 11 September 2015. It was revealed that just a single submission had been made, expressing ‘the view that the transfers would not harm competition and had the potential to make good use of the spectrum’. As such, the regulator has said it does not consider the spectrum transfers ‘raise sufficient competition concerns to justify further analysis’, in light of which it will grant its consent to each of the proposed trades and will issue the relevant new licences to Vodafone UK and Three UK once Qualcomm surrenders its concession.