The Government might miss out on a second windfall payment should Ofcom decide to allow the current owners of 3G licences to own them indefinitely.
It was expected that there would be another round of auctions for the extension of the licences in 2021 similar to the one that netted the government a massive £22.5 billion in 2000 when the Mobile Operators fell over themselves to make sure they were able to change to the new technology.
However, at the time of the first round of auctions many observers thought that the amounts paid were not good value. So far that has been proved to the be the case as the vast majority of revenue generated from Mobile Phones comes from voice calls and texts, services that worked fine on previously exiting technology and not new 3G data services.
Operators have been lobbying Ofcom to allow the indefinite extension of the licences and Ofcom are said to be sympathetic. However, such a move might open the door for legal action from parties who might have bid in the original round of auctions had it been known they were effectively forever rather than 21 years.
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