Superfast Broadband - Evidence - Parliament

Everything Everywhere – supplementary written evidence
competitors both benefited from the Government direction to Ofcom to allow mobile
operators to deliver 3G services over 900MHz and 1800MHz airwaves - a decision we did
not challenge.
We believe that our proposed investment and innovation will drive further investment and
innovation in the UK from the other networks. The auction itself will not necessarily drive
investment - the 3G auction in 2001 saw all networks overpay for the spectrum licences and
subsequent infrastructure investment was consequently slow. Ronan Dunne made a recent
comment to the effect that, as the CEO of 02, he does not see the business justification for
bringing 4G to the UK. There is no better way to make him change his mind than EE
launching a 4G service this year. This will ensure that the predictions in the economic
research we commissioned from Capital Economics will materialize - these indicated that
roll out of 4G networks would add 0.5% to UK GDP over the next decade and unleash
£5.5bn in private investment that will support 125,000 jobs over the next three years.
In a period of such economic uncertainty, we do not believe the UK can afford any further
delays.
1 July 2012
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