Thank you for contacting me about the auctioning of spectrum.
It is Ofcom's duty to manage the UK mobile market, and I am glad that they recognise the need to resolve competition concerns around the available spectrum of mobile data. In order to address this, they have imposed a cap preventing any one company holding more than 45% of the spectrum immediately after the auction.
In addition, Ofcom has been clear that its intervention has been minimal in order to prevent the weakening of competition by giving smaller operators a price break. I have also been reassured that by the time 3.4 GHz spectrum is usable, other bands will become available and there is therefore no immediate necessity for a cap on competition grounds.
I welcome Ofcom's focus on ensuring effective competition in the mobile market and their efforts to get the spectrum into use as soon as possible.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.