An auction for parts of the UK’s 5G spectrum has raised over £1 billion and will help expand rural coverage and develop the country’s high-speed networks.

According to comms regulator Ofcom, the principal stage bidding for 200MHz of the 5G spectrum – 80MHz in the low-band 700MHz range and 120 MHz in the mid-band 3.6-3.8GHz range – raised a total of £1.356 billion. The money generated will be paid into the UK Treasury.

Four of the major telecoms companies, EE, Vodafone, Three UK owner Hutchison 3G UK, and O2 owner Telefónica UK, all took part in the auction and won some of the 34 lots. The licences cover 20-year periods, taking them to 2041.

EE, Hutchinson and Telefónica all purchased range within the 700MHz spectrum, while EE, Telefónica and Vodafone each took range 40MHz within the 3.6-3.8GHz spectrum.

According to Ofcom, the newly-auctioned spectrum will help network providers support the creation of new 5G networks and expand their current mobile services.

The low-band spectrum in particular will help boost services in rural communities as they are ideal for carrying information over large distances.

The mid-band spectrum is of use to building 5G networks as it is capable of boosting mobile data capacity and carrying lots of data-hungry connections.

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With the conclusion of the principal stage of the 5G auction, the process will move into the ‘assignment’ stage. While each company has bought blocks of frequency, they still need to decide which precise frequencies they want. As such, the companies will bid for the frequency positions they prefer.

After submitting their assignment stage bids in the 3.6-3.8 GHz band, bidders can then negotiate the frequency positions among themselves – if they want to join together the airwaves they have secured with spectrum they already hold in the wider 3.4-3.8 GHz band.

Final results will be published once the final results of the auction are concluded, including the total amounts paid, the specific frequencies secured for each bidder, and the outcome of any agreements reached in the negotiation period.

Philip Marnick, Group Director, Spectrum at Ofcom: “This is an important step forward in bringing better mobile services to people – wherever they live, work and travel. These airwaves will help improve coverage for the mobile services people use today, as well as supporting the UK’s position as a world leader in 5G.”

Compared to previous auctions, this one raised relatively little – the 4G spectrum sell-off raised £2.3bn, and the 3G auction brought in £22.5bn.