British telco Vodafone has emerged as the chief victor in the Spanish spectrum auction, taking almost half of the spectrum blocks on offer for a total sum of E518m (US$745.3m).
Vodafone won 24 of the 51 blocks allocated, which equated to 60MHz of new…
British telco Vodafone has emerged as the chief victor in the Spanish spectrum auction, taking almost half of the spectrum blocks on offer for a total sum of E518m (US$745.3m).
Vodafone won 24 of the 51 blocks allocated, which equated to 60MHz of new spectrum. This came in the form of 20MHz (2x10MHz) in the 800MHz band and 40MHz (2x20MHz) in the 2.6GHz band.
Vodafone said that this would allow it to provide enhanced mobile services across the country, including in rural areas. It also said that it would use the spectrum to develop LTE services.
Vodafone will also be able to offer 3G internet mobile services to customers in rural areas, after it got approval from the government to re-farm spectrum that is currently used for 2G services.
Aside from Vodafone, cable operator Ono took nine of the blocks, Telefonica and mobile operator Jazz Telecom both took five blocks, and France Telecom took four.
Telefonica spent E668m, a larger amount than Vodafone, although it only took five of the blocks (two in the 800MHz band, one in the 900MHz band and two in the 2.6GHz band).
France Telecom paid E437m for its four blocks (two in the 800MHz band and two in the 2.6GHz band).
The three regional telcos – Euskatel, R Cable and Telecom CLM – all won one block each. Cable operator Telecable also won one block.
The total raised in the auction was almost E1.65bn (US$2.34bn).
The 800MHz band will become available in 2014, when Spain switches from analogue to digital TV. The 2.6GHz band will be available immediately.
Before the results were announced, a government spokesperson told TelecomFinance that the government was “very satisfied” with the process of the auction, which kicked off a month ago today.
The government had originally said that it was looking to raise a minimum of E1.453bn in the auction process.
In total, nine companies obtained spectrum in the auction. Two companies – Cota and Opnatel – did not get any spectrum.
