Spectrum auction: LTE is conquering Italy

Pisa, 12th August 2011- The auction for the allocation of bands (800& 2600MHz) is about to take place in Italy. The deadline for the presentation of the requests of participation was July. The companies admitted have time to present their offers until the 29th August, after that it will take place the open auction, that will end on September 30th.

The names of the participants admitted have already been announced, with two big surprises, Poste Italiane will not take part in the auction, and there is a new entry, Linkem, a company that operates in WiMAX, gaining the usage right for radio frequencies in 13 regions. The other participants are Telecom Italia, H3G, Vodafone and Wind.

The frequencies allocated have been divided into 8 blocks, according to the frequency, for a total of 25 lotto of bands (800, 1800, 2000 and 2600 MHz). According to the Government’s predictions, this auction should bring between €2.4 billion and €3.1 billion and most likely. With this auction Italy is among the first European Countries to assign those frequencies to the telecommunications’ market, opening, this way, the “doors” to the 4G LTE.

The auction ended, instead, on Spain and the 1st August, the Spanish Minister de Industria, Turismo y Comercio (MITYC) announced the winners, Vodafone, Telefonica and Orange, which secured LTE spectrum in both the 800MHz, and 2.6GHz bands. The following day, the Minister announced new auctions that should take place in autumn. El Pais, on it’s Monday Internet edition, reported that, with this move the Government is looking to raise a total of €2 billion.

Other European incoming auctions should be in France, Belgium later this year while in the UK the race has not begun yet.