O2 customers win big as Telefonica UK makes £500m airwaves investment

Telefonica UK makes £500m airwaves investment to further strengthen its network.

Today Telefonica UK (O2) confirmed success for the acquisition of £523.6m worth of new mobile airwaves during the latest spectrum auction. This significant investment is further evidence of Telefonica's commitment to the UK.

This makes O2 customers winners as the company obtained 40MHz of an immediately useable spectrum (2.3GHz) and 40MHz of spectrum expected to be used in the launch of 5G (3.4GHz) and new 4G airwaves to be switched on for customers within 24 hours of ability to deploy.

**Telefonica UK CEO, Mark Evans said:**'We have been setting the standard for loyalty and customer service in our sector. With this spectrum investment, we can build on our publicly recognised Best Network Coverage, to lead the way on network reliability and service as well. The real winners in this auction are customers as O2 invests to further strengthen its award-winning network. The airwaves we've secured allow us to further enhance our network, both now and in the future.

We've thrown down a major marker for our future commitment to the UK. Our investment in 3.4GHz enables us to move forward to further improve connectivity whilst boosting the economy and laying the foundations for 5G in Britain'

Once the technical standards are agreed O2's ability to deploy 5G infrastructure will be strengthened by the allocation of 3.4GHz spectrum. this will build on O2's recent announcement of its 5G test bed at The O2 in North Greenwich. Future delivery of critical services like telehealth and connected transport will be allowed by this infrastructure. with recent research* revealing 5G services could generate £6 billion in productivity savings for the UK economy.

Everyday O2 invests £2 million in its network. This is to improve the coverage and experience for all of its customers as seen earlier this year as O2 successfully delivered 98% 4G UK indoor population coverage meeting the requirements of the 2013 spectrum auction.

O2 will initially utilise its 2.3GHz spectrum in London, with other UK cities to follow in the coming months, including Edinburgh, Newcastle and Leeds.