Ofcom to auction off 900Mhz spectrum for UMTS?

[pctech]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/20/900mhz/

Read the following the other day, if this happens it may mean the Iphone has a short lifespan along with 2100 Mhz UMTS devices which dont have dual-band capability.

[Andyroo]

A lot of people dont care about the capabilitys of the iphone, so this story dont mean the death of the iphone

[MRGS1]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/20/900mhz/

Read the following the other day, if this happens it may mean the Iphone has a short lifespan along with 2100 Mhz UMTS devices which dont have dual-band capability.Will vodafone and O2 have to buy an allocation to provide 900 UMTS or can they use the space they have? It's going to cost money to rollout will vodafone or O2 allow another company to share their mast's seems like a lot of red tape to get sorted out, perhaps no incentive for o2 or vodafone to rollout UMTS at 900.

[pctech]

From what I've read, from a technical standpoint 900 Mhz provides better in building coverage so commercially it would make sense so voda and O2 would probably bite the bullet and bid for the allocation as most of their kit can be switched to broadcast at 900 via the flick of a switch/software setting change or upgrade (The operators' mouthpiece, the GSM Association, has long been campaigning for 900Mhz to be used for UMTS http://www.gsmworld.com/news/press_2007/press07_43.shtml)

It's quite interesting to read the articles on that site actually as I dont really understand the importance of 3G in countries where the population is starving to death or ravaged by disease but hey, thats capitalism.


My concern isn't for the filthy rich operators but for the customer that has paid out for devices like the iphone or paid £300+ for their all-singing, all dancing 3G phone SIM-free who wakes up one morning to find out it doesn't work because surprise the handset isn't software upgradeable to work on 900Mhz because it would not make commercial sense to make it upgradeable.