France Telecom Orange and TeliaSonera's Yoigo are positioned to acquire LTE spectrum in Spain's first round of spectrum auctions. The two operators were the only bidders with the country's two largest operators, Movistar Espana and Vodafone Spain, being barred until forthcoming auctions.
Orange was reported by Reuters as bidding €126 million for a licence in the 900MHz band, together with pledging to invest €433 million over the next three years in boosting its network infrastructure. Yoigo bid €42 million for the less popular 1800MHz spectrum, with the commitment to spend €300 million on revamping its network over the next three years.
The Spanish government said it would confirm whether these bids had been successful by early June.
Commenting on the sealed bid, Yoigo CEO Johan Andsjo, said that the situation was promising, and gaining this spectrum would see the company paying less rent to Telefonica for using its network. "It means we will have the opportunity to lower our production costs as well as to launch new services such as LTE," he told Reuters.
Spain's two largest operators, Telefónica's Movistar and Vodafone Spain, were barred from bidding. The Spanish government wants to raise €1.5 billion and €2 billion from these spectrum auctions, most of which are suitable for LTE, and see network infrastructure investments of around €1.2 billion.
For more:
- see this Reuters article
- see this Telegeography article
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