UK operator Everything Everywhere remained tight-lipped on speculation that it has complained to the country’s government about a planned spectrum auction, with the possibility that this could lead to a fully-fledged legal complaint. According to UK newspaper The Guardian, the company sent a letter to the authorities as “a marker” that it is dissatisfied with the process, and its complaint could be escalated if Ed Vaizey, the UK’s Communications Minister, fails to address its concerns. While it is not the first time that the spectrum auction, which will allocate frequencies suitable for LTE networks, has been challenged by the UK operators, it was reported that an accord that had been agreed with the UK’s previous administration has now been torn-up.

The issue is that Everything Everywhere, which was formed through the merger of Orange UK and T-Mobile UK, is unhappy that rivals O2 UK and Vodafone UK will be able to retain their 900MHz spectrum alongside 800MHz and 2.6GHz frequencies which are set to be auctioned, giving them a favourable allocation – Ofcom is also supporting the re-use of the 900MHz spectrum for LTE services. Everything Everywhere was formed through the merger of two 1800MHz networks, and therefore has no 900MHz allocation; it was previously suggested that O2 and Vodafone would need to give up part of their 900MHz allocations in order to take part in the auction, with the surrendered spectrum made available to Everything Everywhere. The LTE auction is already long-delayed, with a number of administrative hurdles having hamstrung the process.