5G Fanfare – Will overpaying for spectrum come back to haunt the UK's big 4?

Collectively, Britain's big four mobile network operators spent more than £1.35 billion at Ofcom's 5G spectrum auction – a princely sum but significantly less than the £2.3 billion raised in the 4G auction of 2013. Indeed, the figure pales into near insignificance when compared to the absurdly bloated figure of £22.5 billion raised in 2000 for the 3G licenses.  Despite the comparatively low revenues generated, analysts are hailing the auction as a success, with