James Delahunty
20 Feb 2013 22:59
UK regulator Ofcom has raised over a billion pounds less than it expected to make from its long-awaited 4G auction in the country.
It had forecast a haul of about £3.5 billion, but ended up netting £2.34 billion instead. In 2000, when mobile operators bid on 3G spectrum in the UK, the regulator raised £22 billion. Ofcom chief executive, Ed Richards, said the figure is much lower because we are now in very, very different times.
"What we were trying to do was ensure that a valuable economic resource was brought into productive commercial use," he said.
The winners of the UK's 4G auction were Everything Everywhere; Hutchison 3G UK; Niche Spectrum Ventures, a BT subsidiary; Telefonica (O2); and Vodafone.
The shortfall might cause headaches for Chancellor George Osborne, as he had included £3.5 billion worth of 4G auction receipts in his Autumn statement in December. He had predicted that the UK's budget deficit would fall in 2012-13, but now with a shortfall of over a billion in the 4G auction, all bets are off.