The British government will receive a smaller-than-expected £2.34 billion (€2.7 billion) windfall from airwaves auctioned for 4G super fast mobile broadband. All existing mobile operators won spectrum in the sale.

The treasury had pencilled in proceeds of £3.5 billion from the sell-off, although the total will rise slightly after a final stage of bidding to allocate the winners’ bands of airwaves.

Mobile operators Vodafone, O2, EE and Three all successfully bid, as did fixed-line operator BT, the regulator Ofcom said. Vodafone, the third ranking operator, paid the most, £790.8 million, to win five blocks of airwaves, it said.

Ofcom reserved airwaves for a fourth operator to keep the market competitive.