Mobile giants meet Lord Carter over broadband plans

Communications minister Lord Carter has announced that he will meet with the UK's five biggest mobile operators to discuss the government's universal broadband plans.

Negotiations start on February 12th with a roundtables discussion headed by Kip Meek, head of government independent advisory board, the Broadband Stakeholder Group.

In his recently released interim Digital Britain report, Lord Carter urged mobile companies to form an agreement for the sharing of airwaves in the UK.

He hopes to persuade Vodafone and O2 to release a portion of the spectrum they received in the 1980s to Orange, T-Mobile and 3 in order for them to use this to provide broadband.

The 900 MHz portion of the spectrum is considered ideal for broadband as it runs on a low frequency, ensuring that the signal is able to travel for a significantly longer distance.

However, Vodafone and O2 have previously proved reluctant to free up the band unless they receive something in return.

This may be a portion of the analogue television spectrum, which will soon be auctioned off by the government.