Ofcom has today said that 4G mobile technology will deliver more than 200% of the capacity of existing 3G networks, potentially revolutionising mobile services.
Next year, the media regulator will host the largest ever single auction of mobile phone spectrum in the UK, putting up for sale around 80% more spectrum than was sold off in the multi-billion pound 3G auction that took place in 2000.
The spectrum is required to provide capacity for the launch of fourth-generation (4G) mobile technologies, such as "Long-Term Evolution" (LTE) services capable of delivering mobile broadband speeds of up to 100Mbps.
According to Ofcom's latest research, 4G mobile will be able to deliver more than 200% of the capacity of existing 3G technologies, while still using the same amount of spectrum. This efficiency is expected to increase to approximately 450% by 2020.
The media regulator believes that the increased capacity is essential to meet the massive increase in UK mobile traffic, fuelled by the growth of smartphones and bandwidth hungry mobile services, such as video streaming, GPS mapping and social networking. 4G mobile technologies will start rolling out in the UK from 2013.
Dr Stephen Unger, chief technology officer at Ofcom, said that 4G networks will enable mobile users to download a video in around a third of the time as over 3G.
"4G mobile technologies will be able to send more information than 3G, for a given amount of spectrum. This increased efficiency means that 4G networks will be able to support increased data rates and more users," he said.
"The research that we commissioned indicates that early 4G mobile networks with standard configurations will be 3.3 times (230%) more spectrally efficient than today's standard 3G networks.
"To put this in context, a user on an early 4G network will be able to download a video in around a third of the time it takes today on a 3G network. It is anticipated that this efficiency will increase to approximately 5.5 times (450%) by 2020."
Ofcom's research has indicated that the extra capacity from 4G will not be enough to meet expected demand for mobile data, and so more spectrum is required.
The auction next year will therefore cover two spectrum bands - 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz. The lower frequency of 800 MHz is part of the "digital dividend", freed up as the UK switches from analogue to digital television. The 2.6 GHz band is at a higher frequency, and is more suited to delivering higher speed services.
Combined, the two bands make up around 250 MHz of additional mobile spectrum, which Ofcom believes would create "the ideal conditions for next-generation mobile broadband services".
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