The UK took a step towards a superfast future as communications regulator Ofcom announced the £2.3 billion sale of 4G mobile licences to five operators.
Phone companies EE, Vodafone, 3-owner Hutchison and O2 parent Telefnica all picked up permissions in the auction, as did a BT subsidiary.
But the total raised is £1.2bn less than the UK Government had budgeted for, and just a tenth of the £22.5bn realised from the sale of 3G licences in 2000.
The largest-ever sale of mobile airwaves in the UK, now settled following a month of bidding, is expected to herald faster and more reliable mobile broadband connections across the UK.
Ofcom said 4G services should make it much quicker to surf the web on mobiles, giving speeds close to home broadband and allowing consumers to stream high-quality video, watch live TV and download large files.
The regulator also said it had taken steps to ensure widespread coverage of the UK population by placing a coverage obligation of 98% on one of the successful bidders.
Chief executive Ed Richards said the body would conduct a survey later this year to “show who is deploying services, in which areas and at what speeds”.
Ofcom has also warned that hundreds of thousands of Freeview users could face service disruption as the service is rolled out.
A proportion of the profits from the sale is expected to be used to provide special filters to those who need them.
In Friday’s Courier we look at how the roll-out of next-generation 4G mobile phone networks will affect people in Tayside and Fife, from people who work from home to those who live in the far-flung corners of Courier Country.