Ofcom sets the date for mmWave sale

The UK regulator had been waiting for the authorities to make their final decision on whether to allow the merger before it made firm plans for selling mmWave frequencies. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) gave the tie-up the green light earlier this month, subject only to certain behavioural remedies, leaving the way clear for Ofcom to push on.

"We have considered whether we need to review any of the policy decisions we have taken for the mmWave auction in light of the CMA's decision, and we consider all of our decisions would remain appropriate in a three player market," Ofcom said as it shared its auction plan. "In particular, we do not consider that the new structure of the market changes our reasoning for not imposing competition measures."

It is not a detailed plan, at this stage. But there's more to go on than we had previously. And Ofcom has ticked off its commitment to provide an update on the auction before the end of the year.

Would-be auction participants will be required to submit their applications on 16 and 17 September 2025, with the principal stage of the sale kicking off the following month, Ofcom said. It chose those dates to enable the merged entity to prepare for the auction, it said.

The mmWave sale will be just one more thing on Vodafone/Three's integration 'to do' list, but the new operator will be keen to ensure it snags a slice of the available airwaves along with its rivals.

There will be 5.4 GHz of spectrum in the 26 GHz and 40 GHz bands on offer. The regulator has split it into seven lots of 200 MHz in the lower 26 GHz band and five lots also of 200 MHz in the upper 26 GHz band, and 15 200 MHz lots of 40 GHz. There will be national and regional licences, based on population density.

Each lot of 26-GHz spectrum carries a starting price of £2 million, while 40-GHz come with a reserve of £1 million.

Doubtless we'll hear more from Ofcom on the practical aspects of the auction in the coming months, not least around a firm start date.

The progress of the mmWave auction to date could not be described as particularly efficient, even taking into account the 15-month hiatus caused by the merger. Ofcom has been working on this sale for years.

It began consulting on the idea of opening up mmWave for 5G more than two and a half years ago, and it wasn't exactly in the regulatory vanguard then. It then took until March last year for it to make a firm decision; at that stage it was looking at freeing up more than 6 GHz of frequencies, but didn't quite get that far. All in all, by the time the auction proper gets underway the regulator will have spent three and a half years preparing for it.

At least the telcos, newly merged or otherwise, will have had time to save up.