The Czech Telecommunication Office (CTU) said that five bidders have applied to take part in the upcoming 4G spectrum auction, including two newcomers. The companies are bidding for licences in the 800 MHz, 1.8 GHz and 2.6 GHz bands suitable for 4G….
The Czech Telecommunication Office (CTU) said that five bidders have applied to take part in the upcoming 4G spectrum auction, including two newcomers.
The companies are bidding for licences in the 800 MHz, 1.8 GHz and 2.6 GHz bands suitable for 4G. Tomorrow the envelopes will be opened and the auction will start on 11 November, with no definitive ending date.
Local incumbents Vodafone, T-Mobile and Telefonica have thrown their hats into the ring, alongside potential new entrants Revolution Mobile and Tasciane.
However pan-European investor PPF Group, which took part in the country’s cancelled auction process this year, decided not to compete in the auction to try and become the country’s fourth network operator.
PPF said the auction rules effectively blocked a new operator from merging with other auction participants over the 15-year term of the licence, and therefore it did not make sense to participate from a business standpoint.
CTU dismissed PPF’s criticism and defended the terms of the auction. “Applications of two new subjects to join the auction proves that tender conditions are not discriminatory,” it said in a statement to TelecomFinance.
The terms also drew the ire of Telefonica, which has filed a lawsuit against “unlawful interference”. In a submission to the Municipal Court of Prague it opposes three elements of the auction in particular.
Firstly it is unhappy about what it calls “unauthorised state aid” in the form of a spectrum block dedicated to a new entrant. It also objects to a provision to provide national roaming to a new entrant, and finally opposes a requirement to sell wholesale services.
Telefonica said CTU did not provide justification for the rules and failed to conduct an analysis of the market. The Spanish operator argues that a similar approach in Hungary led to a repeal of the result of a similar tender after its supreme court decided it was against the law to reserve spectrum for a new entrant.
CTU responded by saying that it had a legitimate interest in attracting new investors into the market.
In March, CTU called off the original auction saying that bids were so high they would have had negative effects on the industry and consumers. Total bids for that auction topped Kc20bn (US$1bn). Earlier this year, CTU said it expected bids in the new auction to total less than Kc10bn (US$500m).
