According to a new report by the Open Policy Group, business situated in the UK are at the risk of loosing hundreds of millions of pounds due to the delay in the auction of 4G spectrum in the country by the authorities.

The report comes after new chief of Three UK, David Dyson said that he believes that the auction will be held next year. He expects the Ofcom to delay publishing of the terms for auction to the end of 2011 or early next year from September/October due to the opposition from carriers.

Vodafone, Everything Everywhere and O2 were recently given a go ahead to covert some of their 2G spectrum to 3G spectrum allowing them more flexibility in terms of capabilities in handling traffic. However, these firms will only start paying 3G license fee after the auction. Dyson points out that this is the reason the operators are trying to delay the auction to later next year.

The Open Policy Group estimate shows that faster downloads would save business 37 million hours, equating to a cost of £732 million annually.

"Visitors to Britain will first notice London's lack of 4G mobile data when they arrive for the Olympics next year," says Open Digital boss James Firth. "In addition to the lost time through slow mobile data, UK businesses won't be able to fully benefit from new cloud-based business tools until the UK has a nationwide reliable high speed mobile data network."