Orange: give us share of O2 and Vodafone spectrum

Orange is lobbying the Government for a piece of Vodafone and O2’s 900MHz spectrum for its mobile business by offering to fund the next generation broadband access through its fixed-line assets.

It also wants a guarantee that BT will not put up its wholesale prices. The operator plans to provide broadband using 93% fixed copper, and will use mobile for areas that are harder to reach.

Orange’s UK vice president of strategy, Nicolas Ott, said: ‘Customers will spend money on content but they want it on TV, PC and a laptop.’

Ott said it is ‘not so complex’ for all operators to share the 900MHz, and added: ‘We would pay for the network – other operators don’t have the size of our network in the UK and if they want to be on ours then we will do it.’

Orange’s head of spectrum strategy, Steve Blythe, said the operator believes Ofcom’s suggestion to free up 15% of O2 and Vodafone’s 900MHz spectrum is not enough, and instead demanded that the entire band be split equally between operators.