4G sale falls short of forecasts by £1.2 billion

Just £2.3 billion has been raised from the sale of UK airwaves needed to carry superfast 4G mobile services – much less than the £3.5 billion estimated proceeds that had been factored into the government’s accounts for this year.

A fiercely contested auction among Britain’s leading mobile operators failed to ignite prices for the spectrum that can be used to carry 4G services, which are several times faster than existing 3G signals. The £2.3 billion raised by selling spectrum to five groups – Vodafone, EE, O2, 3 and BT – falls at the lower end of analysts’ estimates and is only a 10th of the £22.5 billion raised through the auction of 3G bandwidth at the height of the dotcom boom in 2000. The end of the auction means that full superfast mobile services will finally be launched in Britain after a five-year wait, but there will still be questions asked of the Treasury.