With the government approving for a spectrum auction for late next year, the UK has reserved specific bands of airwaves for 4G use. Unfortunately, however, those bands aren’t the same as those reserved for use in the USA and would lead to either devices supporting multiple 2G, 3G, and 4G bands for world phone compatibility or would lead to more regionalized devices made specific for geographic areas, such as Europe-specific or North American-specific 4G handset.

According to the BBC, the UK will be auctioning off chunks of the 800 MHz spectrum as well as the 2.6 GHz spectrum for 4G usage, both offering different benefits and values to carriers:

The 800MHz slice – which has been freed up by the switchover to digital TV – allows mobile signals to travel over greater distances, making it invaluable in the search to find ways of bringing broadband to rural areas.

The higher capacity 2.6GHz band will be more useful in towns and cities where lots of users require services.

Another part of the plan in the UK is to transition 2G spectrum over for 3G use.

(via: BBC)