While India's 3G auction raked in $14.5 billion, Germany's large spectrum auction came to an end last week and raised just half of what was expected. Keen on not overpaying for licenses like they did in the 3G auction, Germany's telcos paid a total of $5.5 billion for a total of 41 spectrum blocks.
The three largest mobile operators, O2, Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile, each won two paired 5-megahertz swathes of spectrum in the 800 MHz band, while the smallest operator, KPN-owned E-Plus, failed to win any spectrum in the 800 MHz band.
Licenses were sold in the 800 MHz, 1.8 GHz, 2 GHz, and 2.6 GHz bands. Vodafone won 12 blocks of spectrum across the bands for $1.7 billion, while Telefonica's O2 paid $1.7 billion for 11 blocks. T-Mobile won 10 blocks for $1.6 billion, and E-Plus purchased eight blocks for $356 million.
Deutsche Telecom's head of German operations, Niek Jan van Damme, said the operator will use 800 MHz spectrum to extend LTE in rural areas and the higher frequencies for 3G expansion and LTE in urban markets.
For more:
- see this Rethink Wireless article
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