WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.
The Spanish authorities said that 11 companies have signed-up to participate in the country’s planned LTE spectrum auction, with bids starting at EUR1.45 billion.
In addition to existing operators Vodafone, Telefonica and Orange, a number of other participants from the Spanish ICT industry have also expressed their interest.
According to Telecompaper, the regulator is auctioning 58 blocks in the 800MHz, 900MHz and 2.6GHz bands. The tender winner is expected to be announced by the end of this month.
Interestingly, the current reports all omit Yoigo, the Spanish arm of TeliaSonera, from the list of bidders. Yoigo last month bought an additional spectrum allocation, which it is likely to use to reduce its need to roam onto the networks of competitors.
According to a Dow Jones Newswires report, the Spanish government is looking to raise up to EUR2 billion from the spectrum sale, the proceeds of which will be used to reduce the country’s finance needs.
The availability of mobile broadband spectrum has been identified as a growth driver by operators in the country, and as a tool to reduce the digital divide between the connected and unconnected populations.
