American mobile technology firm Qualcomm has bought 40 Mhz of UK L-Band radio spectrum for£8.3m.

The company outbid O2 and Arqiva, amongst others, for the licence to operate services on the 1452-1492MHz band.

Qualcomm has not said what it wants to do with the spectrum but mobile television, wireless broadband and satellite radio are all possibilities.

The company may use the spectrum for a UK version of its MediaFLO mobile television broadcasting service.

IT PRo reports that “The use of peer-to-peer networking over mobile networks, improved capacity and in-building coverage and multimedia broadcasting could be potential areas of development, according to Andrew Gilbert, executive vice president of Qualcomm and president of Qualcomm Internet Services, MediaFLO Technologies and Qualcomm Europe.”

This is the fifth auction of radio spectrum carried out by Ofcom as it part of its plan to release a total of 400 megahertz of spectrum in addition to the spectrum released through the switch to digital television.

Qualcomm Inc develops digital wireless communications products and services based on CDMA and other advanced technologies.