I thought O2 and Voda would be going together to buy 800mhz and 2600mhz in the 4G auction next year?
Ok my understanding is roughly as follows:
Of the 5 major brands of carrier in the UK, two of them will have LTE in a few weeks time, Orange and T Mobile (Though they are coming together under one brand for this and are called Everything Everywhere EE).
3 is another major brand and they are in the process of buying spare 1800MHz LTE iPhone 5 compatible spectrum from EE, but timescale for active deployment is most likely this time next year. 3 have hinted at sooner but I believe EE isn't obliged to hand it over until next autumn.
There are then two major brands left, Vodaphone and O2 who will not have LTE anytime soon (the auction of the LTE spectrum isn't until next year sometime - potential the spring but then they need to set it all up) iPhone 5 will not be compatible with the spectrums that OFCOM will put up for auction though I guess by the time it is truly available the next iPhone will also be.
However there are a couple of little wrinkles.
O2 does already own a chunk of the relevant 1800Mhz and 2100Mhz spectrum that are compatible with the iPhone 5, however OFCOM, won't allow O2 to use it for LTE services at this time because it is along with O2's other spectrum being used for 3G services and allowing O2 right now to re-farm their existing 1800Mhz and 2100Mhz spectrum from 3G to LTE would see a reduction in service coverage for existing 3G customers, something OFCOM at present won't allow, though O2 are pressing them on this.
By Orange and Tmobile coming together they have enough spare 1800Mhz spectrum to use it for LTE without taking away from their 3G coverage hence they've been permitted by OFCOM to go ahead with their LTE now, provided they sold some of it to 3, to allow a modicum of competition.
Whether O2 will be allowed to use it in the future is up to OFCOM and I don't know how much of a chunk of this spectrum O2 own, it could only be enough to cover several cities or indeed it could be enough to do the whole UK. What I do know is my home and work are covered by several O2 masts using a mix of these spectrums.
The second little wrinkle is that O2 have/are rolling out DC/HCDPA (and I know I have just got those letters completly wrong but I can't for the life of me remember the correct lettering ;-) )
O2 'claim' a max speed of 42mbps on this compared to LTE's 100Mbps, the iPhone 5 is compatible with this 'semi super fast' service and as it's classed as being 'faster 3G' it isn't being sold or claimed as something extra that you need to pay extra for.
Interestingly however EE claim their LTE will see speeds between 8Mbps and max out at 12Mbps, no where near what I suspect most people think of as LTE (maybe this will change overtime but that's what they state on their website at the moment in the small print at the bottom)
Now on my iPhone 4 with O2 I already get on average 5 -6 mbps and the iPhone 4 isn't capable of running on the semi super fast service that O2 are claiming to be installing - the iPhone 5 will be compatible with this though.
Now I'm damm sure that O2 customers will not be seeing speeds of 42mbps, that's the max and basically marketing b/s but if EE are accurate in their 8-12mbps claims for their LTE service, then for those of us still on O2 things may not be quite so much slower after all.
At the end of the day though, who knows, there are so many potential variables from all the companies concerned and OFCOM is a law unto itself!
