The Spanish mobile subsidiaries of France Telecom and Sweden’s TeliaSonera have won spectrum licences in the 900MHz and 1800MHz bands in an auction held today, according to local media.
Expansion reported today that Orange and Yoigo had been the only two…
The Spanish mobile subsidiaries of France Telecom and Sweden’s TeliaSonera have won spectrum licences in the 900MHz and 1800MHz bands in an auction held today, according to local media.
Expansion reported today that Orange and Yoigo had been the only two bidders, respectively making offers on the 900MHz and 1800MHz bands.
Earlier reports had suggested that bids could come from cablecos ONO, Euskaltel, R and Telecable, as well as telco Jazztel.
The amounts that both companies promised to invest were substantially higher than expected. Orange reportedly promised E433m, while Yoigo promised E300m in order to win the licence. These were both far higher than the minimum amount of investment required of E186m.
According to Expansion, the new licence will allow Orange to expand its broadband operations. Because 900MHz has a considerable reach in rural areas, Orange will be able to provide broadband services without having to build new antennae. It also meant better coverage inside large buildings in the bigger cities.
It suggested that the main advantage of the 1,800MHz licence for Yoigo would be that the company could start to offer cheaper phones using GSM technology, where at the moment they only offer 3G-compatible phones. Lower prices would mean Yoigo could compete more aggressively in the prepaid market.
According to Reuters, the two biggest players in the Spanish market – Telefonica and Vodafone – were barred from entering the auction and have even had to return spectrum due to government attempts to give newer mobile operators a fair slice of spectrum.
Spain’s tourism and commerce ministry reportedly plans to make a final decision on the release of the frequencies by 2 June, before auctioning additional 900 MHz, 2.6 GHz and 800 MHz bands of spectrum later this year in a separate process. These bands have become available as part of the digital switchover.
