It's all about borrowing money
To buy the rights to use the spectrum the operators will go to financial institutions. While we are in the midst of a pandemic borrowing money is hard.
Waiting until the markets recover is sensible if Ofcom wants to realise the best return.
Unfortunately, this means delays to the coverage it promises. Ofcom first identified 700Mhz as a priority in 2014
https://www.theregister.com/2014/05/01/ofcom_takes_spectum_from_spooks_for_mobile_broadband/
Ofcom has long said that the auction would happen "by 2022", but there have been many false dawns on this one.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
