Arqiva wins UK wireless license

UK communications regulator Ofcom said Monday that it has awarded a swathe of radio spectrum to broadcast infrastructure firm Arqiva.

Arqiva beat rival bids from AirRadio, Motorola, T-Mobile and the Joint Radio Company with a final offer of £1.5m for 4MHz of spectrum in the 412-414MHz band paired with 422-424 MHz frequencies.

The licence for the spectrum is technology and service neutral allowing Arqiva to use the frequencies how it wishes, within the technical limits of the spectrum.

Arqiva revealed to telecoms.com that it intends to use the spectrum to migrate its customers from legacy analogue private mobile radio systems to modern digital networks, with a nod towards mobile data usage in the future.

“Arqiva is also prepared to resell spectrum and offer managed network service to third parties in a band-manager capacity. This type of spectrum is already congested in dense urban areas such as the centre of London and we expect demand to rise, with the increasing emphasis on public safety, following 7/7 and with the Olympics coming along in 2012,” said Alastair Davidson, managing director for public safety at Arqiva.