The Austrian Telecoms Control Commission (TKK) has decided to postpone the auction of spectrum in the 800MHz, 900MHz, and 1800MHz band to await the closure of the sale of Orange Austria.
The auction was scheduled to take place in September 2012.
The…
The Austrian Telecoms Control Commission (TKK) has decided to postpone the auction of spectrum in the 800MHz, 900MHz, and 1800MHz band to await the closure of the sale of Orange Austria.
The auction was scheduled to take place in September 2012.
The proposed sale of Orange to Hutchison 3G by France Telecom and the parallel sale of no frills brand YESSS! to Telekom Austria are still subject to clearance by antitrust regulators.
The TKK pointed out that the transactions involve most of the four mobile operators in the country. If the spectrum auction was to take place right now, at least one of the three operators involved in the Orange situation might be excluded from bidding under current auction rules, the regulator said.
This in turn could violate one of the main goals of the auction rules, which is to ensure healthy competition among all players. It is currently unclear if the proposed transactions will be cleared by antitrust regulators, the TKK said.
The regulator described the expected delay as „moderate“, but added it reserves the right to launch the auction process anytime if delays turned out to be more severe.
According to the original timetable it was planned to publish the auction documents in April, and to auction the frequencies in September.
France Telecom has said repeatedly that it expects the sale of Orange Austria to close in mid-2012.
