The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has announced that the government raised A$1.96bn (US$1.99bn) during the country’s digital dividend auction. Telstra is by far the biggest contributor, spending A$1.3bn for the licences.
The…
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has announced that the government raised A$1.96bn (US$1.99bn) during the country’s digital dividend auction. Telstra is by far the biggest contributor, spending A$1.3bn for the licences.
The other participants – Optus Mobile and TPG Internet – also secured spectrum.
Vodafone Hutchison Australia had initially planned to take part in the auction, which started on 23 April, but later withdrew its application.
Optus was awarded 20MHz in the 700MHz band and 40MHz in the 2.5GHz band, Telstra received 40MHz in the 700MHz band and 80MHz in the 2.5GHz band, and TPG secured 20MHz in the 2.5GHZ band.
Optus spent A$650m and TPG A$13.5m for the 15-year licences.
The 700MHz digital dividend spectrum is becoming available because Australia will switch from analogue to digital television services at the end of this year. The spectrum on offer can be used for advanced mobile telecoms services such as wireless 4G.
In a statement, Telstra’s CEO David Thodey said: “With the 700MHz and 2.5GHz spectrum we will be able to deliver faster speeds, more capacity and expansive wide area coverage of 4G LTE technology.”
Telstra, which is Australia’s largest mobile operator, said that the spectrum allocations will be financed mainly through debt. Ratings agency Moody’s said the spectrum purchase is credit negative “and will narrow the cushion within Telstra’s A2 rating”. However, Moody’s A2 stable rating for the operator remained unaffected.
The company is required to pay for the licences in Q3 2014.
Meanwhile, Optus Mobile, the country’s second-largest carrier, stated that “with a variety of bands and different long term evolution (LTE) technologies, Optus will gain the flexibility needed to deal with the growing demand for additional capacity and faster network speeds”.
TPG, which did not comment on the auction results, has so far operated as an MVNO using Optus’ network.
