The Dutch 2.6GHz radio frequencies auction opened on 20 April. While nine companies qualified to participate, only five bid in the first round of the combinatorial auction, which was over within two hours, the radio frequencies regulator AT announced. The next round of bidding will start on 22 April. In the initial bid rounds, participants can bid on their preferred amounts of paired and unpaired spectrum, with the price rising in each round until demand is met. The top bidders from the initial round will then be able to bid in a final auction for specific blocks of radio frequencies. In total 38 blocks of 5MHz each in the 2500-2690 MHz band are available, as well as one block of 9.7 MHz in the 2010-2019.7MHz band. The 20-year licences will be technology-neutral and subject to services coverage in just 20 square kilometers within two years of the award and 200km within five years. The minimum bid price is EUR 50,000 per 5MHz spectrum. With the large amount of radio frequencies available, the auction is not expected to reach the multi-billion euro prices achieved in the UMTS auction in 2000. The incumbent mobile operators KPN, T-Mobile Netherlands and Vodafone Netherlands face caps on how much spectrum they can acquire in the auction, due to their existing holdings and in order to encourage newcomers. The operators made a last-minute attempt to secure a court injunction to halt the bidding, as they were not pleased with the caps and other terms of the auction. However, a Rotterdam court threw out the appeals on 16 April. The in-built caps may lead to not all the spectrum available being sold. KPN can acquire a maximum 20MHz, T-Mobile 10MHz and Vodafone 25MHz, while newcomers can acquire a maximum 40MHz. With five bidders in total, of which three are likely the incumbents, there means only 135MHz may be allocated.
