Telephone firms to meet Lord Carter to salvage broadband deal

The UK'S five mobile phone networks are to meet with Lord Carter on July 2nd to try to consolidate a deal to get broadband internet access to everyone in the UK by 2012.

The meeting comes after Carter's lieutenant, Kip Meek, proposed capping the amount of the mobile phone frequency spectrum owned by Vodafone and O2 and freeing up the capacity made available by switching off the analogue TV signal so it can be used for mobile broadband.

Orange, T-Mobile and 3, however, are objecting to the fact that O2 and Vodafone would be allowed to use the spectrum they were granted in the 1980s for broadband services more than a year before the TV signal is available. The three companies also request the caps on O2 and Vodafone to be set tight enough so they'll be required to sell some of their existing portion of the airwaves before picking up any spare TV capacity, which is ideal for broadband in rural areas.

Carter is trying to seal a deal before he produces his final Digital Britain report in mid-June 2009. His interim report, published in January, promised that everyone in the UK would be able to get broadband (of at least 2Mb per second) by 2012. However, Ofcom claims the current fixed-line telecoms network is incapable of getting broadband at 2Mb per second to more than 1.5 million households in the UK.

If a deal cannot be reached between Carter and the five mobile networks, he may have to give up on his proposed 2012 timetable and accept that broadband may not be available to everyone until half-way through the next decade.

3rd June, 2009

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