The mobile operator, Everything Everywhere has predicted that its proposed investment needed to offer UK consumers the first high-speed mobile-phone services will incentivise rivals, including Vodafone Group Plc to increase investment, as experts calculate that collectively carriers need to spend 5.5 billion pounds on the service by 2015 if Britain wants to remain competitive in the new digital age.
The U.K. project of France Telecom SA (FTE) and Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE) has asked regulators for the go-ahead to roll out the high-speed technology on its existing airwaves, as it sets its sights on a fourth-generation service by the end of the year. Rather predictably, Vodafone has opposed the move, in order to stall Everything Everywhere’s plans to offer the faster services before anyone else.
Britain’s wireless mobile internet service needs major investment, according to Everything Everywhere CEO, Olaf Swantee.
“This will spur investment in the U.K.”, said Swantee “Without 4G, it’s really difficult for our networks to cope with the traffic.”
Everything Everywhere wants to move ahead of rivals, and is predicting the surge in mobile data usage in the UK to continue. Network experts are pointing to the fact non-messaging mobile revenues are creeping ahead of traditional message services, such as SMS. This shift in revenue is being led by apps and mobile internet, with all the major mobile manufactures now selling mobiles with sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Spotify pre-installed. High-speed 4G networks are needed in order to cope with the huge demand for mobile data.
Everything Everywhere have announced that operators will need to cough up around 5.5 billion pounds in order to upgrade equipment and create new networks by 2015, pointing towards recent research it commissioned from Capital Economics.
Everything Everywhere will submit further documents to U.K. regulator Ofcom by May 8, the CEO said.