3UK

The LTE spectrum auction in the UK produced £2.34 billion (€2.68 billion) in revenue for the British government, significantly below the government's expectation of £3.5 billion, and analysts agree that the prices paid by the UK operators were below what others have paid for similar spectrum. Analysts ascribed several reasons for the gap, including less demand and more supply of spectrum than in other markets.

UK mobile operators are the winners in the LTE spectrum auction, paying a total of £2.34 billion, significantly below the government's expectation of £3.5 billion.

EE, the UK's first LTE operator said that subscribers to the new service are spending on average 10 per cent more each month. However, the company ducked questions on how many actual LTE customers it has.

The wide-scale deployment of LTE in the UK will save consumers £20 billion by providing them with access to high-speed mobile services, according to a report from telecoms regulator Ofcom.

The recent rumours that AT&T is mulling a European acquisition are based on the idea that the company can escape growth constraints within its home market and build fresh revenues elsewhere. But is Europe the right place to look?

The key role that "maverick" operators such as Hutchison Whampoa's 3 and France's Free Mobile play in driving down the price of mobile services has been brought into sharp focus by a new report, which argues that consumers in markets without these "independent challengers" pay far more for their mobile data services.