/spandiv style="float:right;width:305px;display:inline;font-size:13px;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;line-height:16px;" img src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/53546000/jpg/_53546129_gettywomanw.iphone.jpg" width="304" height="171" alt="Woman with iPhone"span style="width:304px;"There are now 12.8 million smartphones in the UK according to Ofcom./span /div div class="story-feature related narrow"Related Stories/div p class="introduction" id="story_continues_1"UK regulator Ofcom has given phone operators the green light to trade spectrum in a move intended to increase mobile network capacity./p pAvailable bandwidth is becoming a huge issue as smartphones put increasing demand on networks./p pThe trading of airwaves comes ahead of a crucial spectrum auction next year that will usher in 4G data services./p pBoth the auction and the decision to allow operators to trade existing spectrum have caused controversy./p pSpectrum trading allows operators to sell off the airwaves they own in the 900MHz, 1800MHz and 2100MHz frequency bands./p pHistorically the 900MHz slice of spectrum has belonged exclusively to O2 and Vodafone because they were the only two mobile operators on the market when it was handed out./p pWhile other nations have reallocated this spectrum to offer a more level-playing field ahead of 4G auctions, this has not happened in the UK./p pOfcom had originally planned to redistribute the spectrum allocated to O2 and Vodafone, but was met with a legal action, initiated by the two operators./ppOfcom dropped its plans following the merger of T-Mobile and Orange./p pEverything Everywhere (EE), the parent company of T-Mobile and Orange will be the biggest beneficiary of spectrum trading./p pIt was required to sell off about 19 percent of its spectrum frequencies as a condition of the merger./p pThree is unhappy as it has the least spectrum to trade./p p"Spectrum is the lifeblood of smartphones and the mobile internet and for those with surplus holdings it is also a strategic asset, so voluntary trading is the exception," it said in a statement./p p"This move simply allows those who have been gifted access to public spectrum to profit from it, with no benefit for UK taxpayers."/p pThree will voice its concerns later today at a Department of Culture select committee hearing set up to discuss the way spectrum is being allocated./ppO2 and Vodafone are unlikely to sell off any of their assets, according to Mr Howett./p p"It is simply too valuable to them and they would only trade it if they were forced to," he said./p pWhat may force their hand is the upcoming 4G auction in which Ofcom has set caps on the amount that can be bought./p pIt will mean the operators with more existing spectrum will be able to buy less of the more valuable 4G airwaves./p pOfcom has also ring-fenced some of the spectrum for new entrants such as Three./p p"It has done this because it recognised that 3 might not be able to survive and it values the disruptive nature of a player like 3," said Mr Howett./p pBut O2 said it was tantamount to "state aid" and has threatened legal action./p pAny further delays to the auction could put the UK behind other European countries in the roll-out of 4G services, said Mr Howett./p p4G will be crucial as the market continues to grow./p pAccording to Ofcom there are now 80 million mobiles in the UK, 12.8 million of which are smartphones./ppThis article is from the a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk" title="Link to BBC News"BBC News website/a. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites./p pa href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/sC1kqcqCQ3VPA7adaMPzQNpCS4c/0/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/sC1kqcqCQ3VPA7adaMPzQNpCS4c/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/abr/ a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/sC1kqcqCQ3VPA7adaMPzQNpCS4c/1/da"img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/sC1kqcqCQ3VPA7adaMPzQNpCS4c/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/BbcNewsTechnologyFullFeed/~4/SQyO7zRy5_E" height="1" width="1"/