Finland's Ministry of Transport and Communications announced that the winning operators in the 800 MHz spectrum auction are DNA, Elisa and TeliaSonera Finland. Each operator secured 2x10 MHz of the LTE frequencies, under licences valid for 20 years from 2014. The auction, which lasted for over nine months, will generate EUR 108.0 million in revenue for the state of Finland. The price to be paid by Sonera for the new frequency blocks is EUR 41.2 million, including the administrative fees for the auction. DNA will pay EUR 33.57 million, and Elisa will pay EUR 33.34 million. Elisa won 2x10 MHz of spectrum according its target. The payment to regulator Ficora will be made in five parts during the next five years.
The new frequencies will enable Sonera to significantly increase LTE coverage and constitute an important step in creating its mobile broadband network, it said. The frequencies will provide more capacity and possibilities for improving indoor coverage of the network. The licences cover the whole of Finland excluding the region of Aland. Business operations within the frequency band may be launched on 1 January 2014.
The licence holder must launch operations referred to in the licence within two years of the start of the licence period. The mobile communications network must be constructed to cover 95 percent of the population in mainland Finland within three years of the start of the licence period and 97 or 99 percent of the population in mainland Finland within five years of the start of the licence period.
