Three switches on its 5G network as EE complains about the marketing campaign that states “If it’s not Three, it’s not real 5G.”
Background: Three has become the UK’s third operator to launch a 5G network with its fixed-wireless access broadband service in London. Priced at £35/month it offers unlimited data in a bid to rival fixed line broadband. Three’s wider 5G rollout is imminent and will reach 25 cities by the end of 2019. Central to Three’s advertising campaign is its 100MHz of contiguous 5G suitable spectrum.
An enviable spectrum portfolio: The large portfolio of contiguous spectrum Three has is particularly useful for speed, reliability and capacity – all crucial in the home broadband environment. The operator was once synonymous for having the least attractive set of airwaves, but after some clever acquisitions has amassed an enviable portfolio with almost as much as three times as much 5G suitable spectrum as any of its rivals. Vodafone has 50MHz of mid-band 5G spectrum (although it is only utilising 40MHz of it at launch), and EE and O2 have 40MHz each. Three has so much because as well as the block it got in the 3.4GHz auction, it already owned a large amount from an earlier purchase of former FWA provider UK Broadband.
EE’s complaint and what the ASA will have to settle: EE is questioning Three's interpretation of the ITU's 100MHz bandwidth requirement for 5G. ITU’s documentation states “the requirement for bandwidth is at least 100 MHz”. The issue the ASA will have to settle is whether ‘true’ 5G requires 100MHz contiguous 5G spectrum – or whether aggregated system bandwidth can count towards the 100MHz requirement. If the later, then other operators can also already get to the 100MHz aggregated frequency bandwidth.
