§ Mr. HendrickTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what arrangements she intends to make for the licensing of broadband fixed wireless access at 3.4 GHz. [72970]
§ Mr. TimmsFollowing extensive consultation with interested parties, I intend to award licences by auction later this year for the provision of public fixed wireless access at 3.4 GHz. There will be seven metropolitan and950W seven provincial licences for England, Scotland and Wales and a single licence for Northern Ireland. Each licence will have a forward and return channel both of 20 MHz. There will be no roll-out obligations included in the licences and the proposed service restrictions have been removed. Licences will be for a term of up to 15 years.
Regulations providing for the running of the auction have been made and will be laid before the House this week. I will issue a notice under the regulations that will set out the procedures to be followed during the auction. Once the regulations have come into force, I expect to invite applications for licences in September so that the auction may begin by early October.