3 UK Acquires UK Broadband – And Lots More Spectrum

After Brexit foiled prior plans to acquire rival O2, 3 UK today revealed it's acquiring UK Broadband, a move designed to increase its customer base. And, more importantly, its spectrum capacity.

The UK Broadband deal is valued at about US$373 million or £300 million and is slated to close this summer, Three UK says.

The British service provider previously had tried to acquire O2, the UK subsidiary of Spain's Telefónica, but was blocked by regulators last June.

Three UK entered the British market in 2003 as the "first 100% 3G network in the UK," and has since expanded to carry about 35% of the nation's mobile data and cover all but about 3% of the British population, according to 3.

For its part, UK Broadband Ltd. says it's the country's "largest commercial holder of national radio spectrum suitable for 4G mobile services and fixed wireless solutions," addresses rural and smart city applications, and has a fiber network.

Battle for spectrum
Last year, 3 joined forces with competitors including TalkTalk, CityFibre, Gamma Telecom and Relish on "Make the Air Fair," an initiative that wants to prevent any one service provider from holding more than 30% of the country's available spectrum. BT, which owns EE, now holds 42% of UK spectrum, Vodafone has 29% while 3 UK has 15%. O2 has 14%. (See Eurobites: BT Rivals Call for Curbs on Spectrum Ownership.)

UK Broadband has 124MHz of spectrum in 3GHz and 3.6GHz, plus an additional unspecified amount of spectrum "suitable for high-capacity point-to-point and point-to-multipoint services in the 3.9GHz, 28GHz and 40GHz bands," according to the company.

British operators now are battling over how Ofcom should sell the next available batch: 190MHz of spectrum in the 2.3GHz and 3.4GHz bands.

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