UK regulator proposes drop in licence charges for mobile operators

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LONDON, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Mobile phone networks could pay lower fees to the government for using airwaves, British telecoms regulator Ofcom said on Thursday, after it recalculated the value of some blocks of spectrum following a 4G auction two years ago.

Operators EE, owned by Deutsche Telekom (LSE: 0MPH.L - news) and Orange (LSE: 0OQV.L - news) , Telefonica's O2, Vodafone and Hutchison (HKSE: 0013-OL.HK - news) 's Three, could see their total annual fees fall by 10 percent on Ofcom's previous proposal to a combined 223 million pounds ($3445 million) a year, the regulator said.

The proposed reductions come after the operators agreed to improve coverage in rural areas, although Ofcom said their pledges were unlikely to have a major impact on the value of the spectrum.

The mobile operators agreed in December to spend some 5 billion pounds to extend guaranteed voice and text coverage to 90 percent of the country by 2017, halving the area affected by patchy signal coverage.

Ofcom said it was open to considering alternative views on the impact of the operators' decision to spend more on their networks in its consultation, which closes on April 17.

The British mobile operator industry is undergoing a period of consolidation after BT sealed a deal this month to buy EE, becoming Britain's dominant communications company and prompting rivals to call on regulators to intervene. ($1 = 0.6472 pounds) (Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Liisa Tuhkanen)