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We already knew that Ofcom was planning to auction some spectrum in the 1.4GHz band, but now we know roughly when, with the telecoms regulator having announced that it plans to open applications for the auction in mid-January 2027 (though not before 14th January), and that it expects to complete the auction process before the end of February 2027.
So there’s not long to wait now before one of the UK’s mobile networks could gain additional spectrum to use with 5G or 4G. And yes, unlike previous spectrum auctions, there will only be one winner here, with Ofcom planning to award the entire block of spectrum to a single winning bidder.
The spectrum in question is a 25Mhz block covering 1492Mhz to 1517MHz. This won’t be the first spectrum from the 1.4GHz band to be used by mobile services though, as VodafoneThree already has access to a 40MHz block covering 1452MHz to 1492MHz.
So if VodafoneThree wins this they’ll have a larger contiguous block in that band, which could be desirable. As such they may well bid high.
A versatile band
But the 1.4GHz band is a mid-band frequency, meaning that it can combine reasonably widespread coverage with fairly high data speeds, so it could be desirable for all of the UK’s networks. Ofcom for its part expects that this will “improve the performance of mobile services for consumers, particularly where coverage is patchy, for example indoors and in rural areas.”
Still, along with the whole block being awarded to one winner there are other peculiarities to this auction, as the winner won’t be allowed to use this spectrum for mobile services before 11th June 2027, and even then, there will be limits on its use around airports until 1st January 2034 and around the coastline until 1st January 2043.
This is because it sits just below a part of the 1.5GHz band that’s being used by Inmarsat‘s emergency communication satellite terminals leveraged by ships and planes – so Ofcom is giving them time to make sure there are no issues.
