The UK stands to benefit from improved 5G access after regulator Ofcom completed the initial auction of mmWave spectrum to major operators, setting up a £39 million windfall in the process.

EE, VMO2 and VodafoneThree lined up the purchase of 800MHz of spectrum in the 26GHz band each, along with 1GHz in the 40GHz band during the principal stage of Ofcom’s auction.

The operators committed £13 million apiece to the spectrum, which Ofcom stated would boost mobile services in 68 towns and cities, stadiums, transport hubs and other crowded areas.

Ofcom group director for spectrum David Willis said the UK is on the path to “better, faster 5G”.

“The large amount of spectrum we’ve released will help support innovation, open doors to new applications and growth, and can bring noticeable improvements to mobile services in busier places”.

Having effectively expressed interest in the spectrum on offer, operators will now be asked to bid for specific frequency positions.

Ofcom noted mmWave spectrum is well-suited to improving capacity in crowded areas.

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In a related statement, VMO2 CEO Lutz Schuler branded the outcome of the initial phase of the auction a “strong result” and pledged to deploy the additional frequencies “at the right moment”.

The operator noted it achieved data rates of 4Gb/s on a single device during testing of mmWave spectrum.

VMO2 indicated “limited” stocks of compatible devices may hinder initial commercial services using mmWave, but noted the spectrum would sit well in the more than 2,000 sites where it has deployed small cells to-date.

A representative for EE parent BT Group told Mobile World Live the auction result is good news for all customers, but could be a particular benefit to industrial players by enabling “new services and applications, such as ultra-reliable high performance private networks”.

VodafoneThree also highlighted the potential of the spectrum for private networks.