Spanish firm wins spectrum in British auction
Madrid, Feb 21 : Spanish telecommunications giant Telefonica spent 550 million pounds (USD 844.23 million) to acquire spectrum in an auction in Britain, the company said Wednesday in a regulatory filing.
Two 10 MHz blocks in the 800 MHz spectrum band were acquired through Telefonica unit O2 UK.
These frequencies are most suitable for the new Long-Term Evolution, or 4G, mobile telephone networks, which permit data transmission at speeds of up to 100 megabits per second and facilitate the development of new telecommunications services.
Telefonica and British telecommunications giant Vodafone reached an agreement in June to create a single shared grid in Britain, a deal that will allow very rapid deployment of the new 4G networks.