CM3 On Campaign Which Aims To Speed Up 4G Mobile Roll-Out In UK

May 3, 2012 - PRLog -- CM3, a sales and marketing company based in Manchester, believes that we need to encourage the 4G roll out. The firm is urging business leaders and consumer champions to join 4GBritain - a campaign calling on the government “to do whatever is necessary to move forward” with the roll-out. The network operator's chief executive said the UK needed to catch up. The sale of the 4G spectrum has been delayed by operators fighting over how to distribute the airwaves.

Experts predict that the telecoms regulator Ofcom may have to go to court before the auction goes ahead. Everything Everywhere (EE) - the merger between T-Mobile and Orange - has kickstarted the campaign, but potential members are promised that they will be treated as “an equal partner”, according to a document seen by the BBC. “This is a call for attention to be brought to this issue, to stop battling in the background and let us catch up with the other 34 countries that have already launched 4G services,” said a spokeswoman for EE. The managing director of CM3 had this to say, “It’s true that we may be behind in the world so maybe it is the time to catch up and launch 4G services.”

Olaf Swantee, chief executive of EE since September, told the BBC that he was surprised how far behind the UK was.”The UK had struck me as a place where mobile technology is deployed first and yet the infrastructure is behind Germany, Scandinavia and the US. I want to do something about this issue,” he told the BBC. According to Matthew Howett, of analysts Ovum, some experts are “a bit skeptical” about its campaign, because EE has its own 4G agenda. A source at CM3 stated, “we are surprised by the UK not having 4G services. We hope that it will be an upcoming service to all of us.”

It is hoping to be the first to roll out 4G services this year ahead of the auction. It has asked Ofcom if it can reuse its 1800MHz spectrum for this purpose. Ofcom is currently considering the proposal. A director at CM3 said, “Hopefully they will be able to use their old spectrum and can roll out the 4G services in the near future.”