European 2.5 GHz Auctions
Posted by Sam Churchill on May 9th, 2008
Sweden has concluded their auction of 2.6 GHz spectrum by the National Post and Telecom Agency (PTS). Auctioning 190 MHz in the in the 2.6 GHz band raised a total of SEK 2.1 billion (USD 346 million).
Five companies won licenses. Intel Capital acquired one block of 50 MHz TDD spectrum for USD 26.2 million. The blocks of FDD frequencies went to Tele2, Telenor, and TeliaSonera, each paying approximately USD 90 million each for 2×20 MHz, and 3G operator HI3G Access AB paid USD 49 million for 2×10 MHz.
The licenses will be technology and service neutral, allowing use for mobile mobile telephone and wireless broadband. according to Analysys Mason, a telecom adviser.
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SOURCE: National Post and Telecom Agency
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With auctions coming up in other European countries, including the UK, Austria and the Netherlands, the outcome of the Swedish auction provides information on the price that operators will pay for 2.6GHz spectrum throughout Europe.
The Swedish auction concluded at a price of EUR0.13/MHz/pop, with unpaired spectrum going for just below EUR0.04/MHz/pop and paired spectrum for EUR0.16/MHz/pop. The prices achived in the Swedish auction were higher than the recent Norwegian 2.6GHz auction (EUR0.03/MHz/pop).
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SOURCE: WiMAX Day
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The competitive situation in Sweden, with four mobile players, may be more representative of the situation in most European countries than the Norwegian two-player market,” says Bart-Jan Sweers, Strategy Consultant at Analysys Mason.
“Some European countries (e.g. the UK and the Netherlands) plan to deviate from the CEPT band plan by using a flexible band plan, in which the split between paired and unpaired spectrum is not fixed but varies according to demand at auction.
The Swedish result suggests that “competition between bidders for paired and unpaired spectrum will be minimal, given that the price fetched for unpaired spectrum was four times lower than for paired spectrum,” says Sweers.
OFCOM expects a summer 2008 auction for the 205MHz of spectrum in the 2010-2025 MHz and 2500-2690 MHz bands. As with previous auctions, the spectrum is being made available on a service-neutral basis - which means bidders are not required to restrict their use of the spectrum to a particular technology or service.
Potential WiMAX providers worry that cellular operators will simply outbid them in the UK, virtually excluding Mobile WiMAX operators from the 2.6 GHz band, leaving them with less ideal 3.5 GHz frequencies. But director of Intel Capital EMEA, Ashish Patel, says “WiMax will cover the UK in 18 to 24 months“.
In the far East, analyst Caroline Gabriel says the Indian regulator TRAI aims to auction 3G bands (in 450MHz, 800MHz and 2.1GHz), but also spectrum in 2.3-2.4GHz, 2.5-2.69GHz, and 3.3-3.6GHz.
India is likely to be the largest short to medium term market for WiMAX, with operators looking to meet fixed broadband targets and leapfrog 3G services. According to an earlier TRAI recommendation to the DoT, BWA spectrum should cost only a fraction of the price of 3G spectrum. For example, a block of BWA spectrum in Mumbai has a reserved price of R10Cr (about $2.5m), while a block of 3G spectrum in the same area has reserved price of R80Cr ($19.5m).
In China, the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry (MII) has already allocated the 2.6 GHz spectrum to C-band satellite transmission, but the Ministry has separately confirmed that they have dedicated spectrum to 3G mobile services, but they do not plan to extend that spectrum to 2.3–2.5 GHz, and it is unlikely that the government would allocate bandwidth to mobile WiMAX to operate in the same 3G spectrum.
In February 2003, MII auctioned licenses for 3.5 GHz covering 32 cities. There are now many networks in development that utilise the 3.5 GHz band. Among the dozen companies that were awarded licenses, the largest include China Netcom, China Telecom, ChinaComm and Hua Tong Electricity. Intel has been working with companies in several regions to establish trials, and Alvarion has worked with China Telecom since 2004.
Related DailyWireless stories include; It’s Official: Sprint, Cable & Google Building WiMAX Network, Motorola Mobile WiMAX in Thailand, WiMAX Roundup, Australia Unwired, Intel: $500M for M-Taiwan, Alcatel-Lucent Wins a Couple, Tata WiMAXing 15 Cities in India, KDDI Tight with Airspan Mobile WiMAX, Alvarion: Wave 2, WiMAX World 2007, Urban WiMAX in the UK, Europe Auctions 3.5 GHz, Italy Auctions WiMAX Spectrum, WiMAX Uncloaks FDD,WiMAX Deployment Maps, Urban WiMAX in the UK, BT’s European WiMAX Plan, Nokia WiMAX: UK Tough, U.S. Litigious, Fixed Vrs Mobile WiMAX in UK?, UK Unwires 12 Cities, UK to Auction 215 MHz - for Everything, Towerstream Switches to Alvarion 3.65 GHz, Free 3.65GHz Mapping Service, Bill to Free 2155-2180 Mhz, MuniFi Roundup and OFCOM’s Global Sit Rep.
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