Everything Everywhere to reinvest profits

Mobile phone operator, Everything Everywhere is to reinvest profits made from the upcoming sale of its 1 800MHz spectrum in the UK's mobile network, following criticism that the sale of a public asset would be diverted to German and French shareholders, Computer Weekly reports.

In 1991, John Major's government gave the spectrum away to mobile operators for free, on the basis that the government would be paid annually through licence fees.

"We are required to sell some 1 800MHz spectrum, for which we pay £33 million in licence fees to government each year,” T3.com quotes Everything Everywhere as saying.

“It is our intention that all proceeds from the sale of this spectrum will be invested into our UK network to benefit our customers across the country."

According to V3.co.uk, the firm has already started work on some network upgrades, announcing in May it is upgrading its 2G network with Huawei, and confirming in October it has started to merge the 3G networks of Orange and T-Mobile to widen coverage for customers on either network.