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Ofcom announces 4G spectrum winners in the UK, snags less cash than expected
UK regulator Ofcom has revealed the winners of its 4G spectrum auction after more than 50 rounds of bidding: EE, Hutchison 3G (Three), BT subsidiary Niche Spectrum Ventures, Telefonica (O2) and Vodafone. It wasn't all good news however, as the agency revealed the auction only roped in £2.4 billion pounds, less than the £3.5 billion it had anticipated. Left on the outside looking in? MLL Telecom and HKT Company. Interestingly enough it was Vodafone -- headed by CEO Vittorio Colao who famously suggested only "technofreaks" were into 4G speed -- that spent the most. The idea is to spread high speed wireless across "almost the whole" UK population by 2017 at the latest, and the auction's intent was to create more competition in the space. Telefonica UK specifically is required to provide indoor reception to at least 98 percent of the population by then, as a condition of its bid. As seen above, the available 250MHz of spectrum was auctioned off in two separate bands, 800MHz (ideal for expanded coverage and freed up by the digital TV transition) and 2.6GHz more suited to high speed data connections. So what's next? You guessed it -- another round of bidding, to determine where in each band the winners spectrum lies, before services roll out in spring or summer of this year. Hit the source link to check out the full results for yourself and prepare for the 5G battle, expected to commence sometime after 2018.
Hutchison Austria to offer discounted iPad with 2-year contract for i-Mo 3G modem
Coveting an iPad, but not willing to pay full price? If you happen to live in Austria and don't mind committing to a two-year data contract, Hutchison's got you covered. The carrier's offering a 333 Euro (approximately US $455) discount if you sign up for a 29.90 Euro, 5GB monthly data contract. Sounds great, but frankly we still don't know how much it's gonna cost outside of the US -- the foreign sites still list American prices, as far as we can tell. The other catch is that instead of offering the integrated 3G version, you're getting a Huawei i-Mo 3G modem to create a personal WiFi cloud with the iPad. Elegant? Not really, but it's still quite the deal (short-term, at any rate). No indication when Apple's device will hit Austria, but we gotta imagine they wouldn't set up such an offer without a short-term plan.
3's INQ to hit the mobile scene with Facebook-friendly INQ1
Overseas mega-corp Hutchison, which owns the 3 network, has a new handset subsidiary called INQ, which is going after the social-hungry youth market in a big way. INQ's first handset, the INQ1, doesn't look like anything special -- just a frumpy-looking slider with a decent screen -- but start poking around and you'll find a massive amount of software for such a dorky phone from a handset upstart. The big angle here is Facebook integration -- INQ has a Facebook app to rival Facebook's own work on the iPhone, and ties Facebook contacts, chat and messages into all parts of the phone. The phone enjoys similar integration with Skype (including making Skype calls free over the network, like 3's Skypephone) and Windows Live Messenger. Other apps include an eBay tracker and a full-on WebKit browser. None of this is revolutionary, or even particularly polished, but the work INQ has done at integration, like a unified contact list, could do to be copied by even the major smartphone players. What is revolutionary is the price: INQ plans to sell primarily through pre-paid carriers, who are expected to retail the featurephone for under £99 without contract. The HSDPA phone, to be "officially announced" on October 13th, will hit the UK in November, and can apparently be flashed to work with US carriers -- with a launch planned for here next year. Oh, and the killer app? The phone doubles as a plug-and-play 3G modem. Yeah, US carriers are going to take real kindly to this one.%Gallery-34232%
