Ofcom revises proposal for LTE auction plans (UK)
Independent regulator and competition authority Ofcom, has reportedly made changes to its proposal for the upcoming LTE mobile spectrum auction in an attempt to provide better mobile internet services in many rural and underserved areas.
As per sources, Ed Richards, CEO, Ofcom, has said that they are proposing a significant enhancement of mobile broadband, extending 4G coverage beyond levels of existing 2G coverage – helping to serve many areas of the UK that have traditionally been underserved by network coverage.
Further, reports reveal that the competition authority had initially reserved some portion of the spectrum for Everthing Everywhere which is no longer a part of the revised proposal. Ofcom claims that because of their current spectrum holdings, and/or the much lower risk that these national wholesalers would fail to acquire further spectrum in the auction, they do not consider it necessary to reserve any spectrum for Everything Everywhere, Telefonica or Vodafone.
The regulator also believes it is more viable to reserve some of the available spectrum for a fourth national wholesaler, someone other than Everything Everywhere, Telefonica or Vodafone.
Indian & German spectrum auctions- Where is the value for money?
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: May was the month of auctions and bidding. With two of the biggest spectrum auctions in Germany and India been concluded this month, hundreds of questions have been raised regarding the outcome.
In the second highest revenue-generating spectrum auction for almost a decade, on May 19, the Indian 3G auction concluded, raising EUR 11.7 billion (USD14.6 billion). This was quickly followed by the German auction concluding on Thursday last week, raising EUR4.4 billion (USD5.5 billion). Significant drop in process of the spectrum has been noticed since the 3G auctions in 200001.
Less than expected revenue was generated in the German auction as EUR5.8 billion to EUR8 billion has been expected by the analysts but it only raised EUR4.4 billion (USD5.5 billion). A total of 360MHz (of which 2´145MHz was FDD spectrum) ranging across the 800MHz, 1800MHz, 2.1GHz and 2.6GHz bands had been auctioned by BNetzA. EUR1.3 billion to EUR1.4 billion had been spent by T-Mobile, Vodafone and O2 while E-Plus spent just EUR284 million for 70MHz of spectrum, but it failed to gain any 800MHz spectrum.
The spectrum sold in the Indian 3G auction on the other hand has been viewed as expensive. Three or four 2´5MHz lots in the 2.1GHz band in each of the 22 telecoms circles†across India had been auctioned by the Indian Department of Telecommunications and double the revenue had been generated than what was predicted. This was despite India having a GDP per capita 40 times less than that of Germany.
Vodafone which participated in both the German and Indian auctions spent EUR3.4 billion (USD4.2 billion) while in the UK and German auctions in 2001, it spent EUR18.3 billion. At the end, Indian auction might seem to be expensive but when it comes to value for money, German auction surly scores points, especially in the high frequency bands.
India’s broadband auction attracts bid of $500m on first day
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: On the very first day of an auction for licenses to offer faster wireless broad band for computers nationwide, Indian government got bids totaling 23.5 billion rupees ($500 million). Bandwidth slots in each of 22 regional zones have been auctioned in the world’s second-largest wireless market by subscribers, India thus attracting almost all the big players of the country.
Qualcomm Inc. which is the world’s biggest maker of mobile-phone chips, and Vodafone Group Plc, the largest mobile carrier by sales are in the race along with nine other companies. A company would have to win bids in all 22 zones in order to ensure nationwide spectrum. 509.7 billion rupees ($11 billion) for licenses to offer third-generation mobile-phone services have been bid by the nine companies last week. However, none of the telecom operators were successful in acquiring the rights to national 3G coverage by winning licenses in all 22 regions up for auction, not even Bharti Airtel Ltd., India’s biggest wireless operator, and Vodafone.
Analysts now feel that these operators will now bid in the broadband spectrum auction in order to fill in the gap caused by not acquiring 3G bandwidth. According to an analyst, considering how heated bidding was in 3G, and the fact that there are only two slots this time, there are possibilities of the prices to go three or four times the base price, at least.
34 percent rise in the closing bids for licenses to offer broadband wireless in the entire nation’s service zones has been noticed by the Department of telecommunication, which went up from the base price of 17.5 billion rupees set by the government initially. Daily updates are issued by the telecommunications department on bidding and all data collected from bidders will be made public after the auction is over.
Indian govt expects $13b from 3G auctions
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: $13 billion is expected to be raised by the Indian government from the ongoing auctions of radio frequency spectrum for third generation (3G) telecom services and for rolling out broadband wireless internet services in the country. Earlier, $10.1 billion was expected to be raked in from the auctions.
Monday witnessed the conclusion of eighty-two rounds of 3G spectrum auction and the provisional winning price for a nationwide license reached Rs.8,382.48 crore. According to Communications Minister A. Raja, the revenue from 3G alone will touch Rs 40,000 crore and putting both 3G and broadband spectrum together, govt hope to get Rs.50,000-55,000 crore of revenue while describing the comparison between 3G and 2G baseless he cited that 3G services is supposed to be for those who require value-added services while 2G services are for the common man.
The government provisionally hopes to get at least Rs.33, 894.62 crore from the auction apart from the fee that will be eventually paid by the two state-run enterprises for the licenses. Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Vodafone Essar, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices, Aircel, Etisalat, S Tel and Videocon Telecommunications are the nine telecom companies participating in the auction.
Dutch telco KPN objects to 2.6GHz spectrum auction
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Injunction is prepared to be seeked by telecom operator Royal KPN against an upcoming Dutch wireless spectrum auction. As a reason the telco has revealed that it would allow market newcomers to acquire more spectrum than existing operators.
According to the telco, the country’s mobile market already has numerous mobile service providers, high quality services and relatively low prices.
The auction which was supposed to take place for 2.6GHz spectrum has already been delayed several times.
9 applications for 3G & 11 for BWA auction received by Indian govt
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Eleven applications for the BWA spectrum auction along with nine applications for the upcoming 3G spectrum auction has been received by the Indian government.
Aircel, Bharti Airtel, Etisalat, Idea Cellular, Reliance Telecom, S Tel, Tata Teleservices, Vodafone Essar, and Videocon Telecommunications are included in the list of the bidders for 3G spectrum.
The list of applicants for BWA spectrum include Aircel, Augere, Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Infotel Broadband Services, Qualcomm, Reliance WiMax, Spice Internet Service Provider, Tata Communications Internet Services, Tikona Digital Networks, and Vodafone Essar.
April 5 and 6 has been planned as the dates for mock auctions while on April 9, actual bidding process will take place. Two days after the completion of the 3G spectrum auction, auctions for BWA license will be conducted.
UK to wait till 2011 for 2.6GHz spectrum auction
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: UK will have to wait until 2011 at the earliest for the auction of Long Term Evolution (LTE) spectrum. The comment came from Independent Spectrum Broker, Kip Meek, after O2 UK, UK’s largest mobile operator by subscribers, announced the completion of its LTE trials in Slough, recording download speeds of 150Mbps during the pilot.
According to Meek, the delay in the sale of 2.6GHz spectrum stems partially from reluctance from the market’s major players to get involved now while the operators are focusing on trialling the provision of 3G services over the 900MHz band, as they claim this will help them assess how much they would be willing to pay for spectrum in the debated band.
FNA receives six requests for spectrum auction in Germany
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Six requests have been received by Federal Network Agency (FNA) to take part in the country’s digital frequency auction scheduled for early in the second quarter of 2010. The applications will now be examined by FNA after which it will decide whether the companies are qualified to take part or not.
German telecoms giant Deutsche Telekom (DT), UK-based Vodafone, Spain’s Telefonica O2 Germany and E-Plus, the local unit of Netherlands-based group KPN, are all expected to be among those asking to be admitted as bidders.
It is one of the largest spectrum auctions in Germany since the allocation of UMTS concessions in 2000 and involves licenses for spectrum freed up in the switchover from analogue to digital television. The spectrum package includes 360MHz, 1.7GHz, 1.8GHz, 2GHz and 2.6GHz besides 60MHz in the digital dividend range of 800MHz.
Foreign operators barred from bidding in CDMA 3G spectrum auction (India)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The upcoming auction of 3G spectrum will be limited to UMTS spectrum only as per Ministry of Communications and Information Technology decision. The move is aimed at keeping the international companies away from the bidding auction. The decision can also block new foreign players from launching both 2G and 3G CDMA-based services.
However, scarcity of airwaves for that technological platform has been cited as one of the reason by the ministry for not allowing foreign operators to bid for 3G CDMA spectrum.
According to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), only existing licensees offering CDMA services will be eligible to bid this spectrum is being provided as 3G growth path for CDMA operators.
