Advanced Television

Spain raises €1.65bn in 4G auction

August 1, 2011

Spain’s Industry Ministry has revealed that the successful bidders in a spectrum auction will pay a total of €1.65 billion as they look to launch high-speed fourth-generation services. The country’s three main mobile telcos – Telefónica, Vodafone and France Telecom’ secured spectrum in the 800MHz and 2.6GHz bands in the auction.

Vodafone paid €518 million for 20MHz in the 800MHz band and 40MHz in the 2.6GHz band, and also plans to re-farm some of its 900MHz GSM spectrum for LTE services. Telefónica said it had won five frequency blocks in the 800MHz, 900MHz and 2.6GHz spectrum but details of its holdings, and those of Orange, were not disclosed.

Earlier in the year, Orange and TeliaSonera/Yoigo won the first round of LTE sales, committing to pay Spain’s government €168 million.

A further round of 4G auctions is expected in the autumn that plans to raise up to €2 billion.

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