Czech regulator CTU said that the auction for LTE frequencies in the bands 800 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz is complete, with incumbents T-Mobile Czech Republic, Telefonica Czech Republic and Vodafone Czech Republic being the winners. Neither of the two potential new players acquired any airwaves, but MVNOs will have access to LTE networks, too. The three successful applicants have 30 months to cover almost 50 percent of districts, especially sparsely populated areas. CTU expects, however, that the technology will be deployed faster than required by development criteria.
In the band 800 MHz, T-Mobile acquired blocks A1 and A2 for total amount of CZK 2.231 billion, Telefonica two blocks in the A2 category for CZK 2.386 billion and Vodafone auction block A3 for CZK 2.664 billion. Each operator got also four blocks in the FDD 2600 MHz band and a portion of blocks in the B2 category in the band 1800 MHz.
In total, T-Mobile will pay CZK 2.614 billion, Telefonica CZK 2.802 billion and Vodafone CZK 3.113 billion. The auction will bring the state budget an income of CZK 8.529 billion in 2014. Some of the blocks in the bands 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz remained unassigned and CTU is considering a way to sell those next. CTU expects to issue decisions on spectrum awards at the beginning of 2014, after the auction winners pay for the spectrum allocated.
