The joint venture of Ziggo and UPC, the Netherlands' largest cable operators, paid the top price for radio frequencies in the auction of 2.6GHz spectrum. Their venture Ziggo 4 BV paid a total EUR 1.09 million for 20-year licences of 2x20MHz in the 2510-2530 MHz band paired with the 2630-2650 MHz band. The licences make it possible for the regional cable operators to offer national mobile services. The two companies said in a joint statement that they plan to offer mobile data services bundled with their existing fixed offers, and will start working on plans for implementation of the new services. While both companies have previously operated MVNO services in the Netherlands, they stopped selling the mobile services around a year ago due to limited take-up.
Tele2 was the other top bidder in the Dutch auction, paying EUR 400,000 for 2x20MHz in the 2545-2565 MHz band paired with the 2665-2685 MHz band. Tele2 already operates a MVNO in the Netherlands, which had 383,000 customers at the end of March. The company is expected to roll out an LTE network. Gunther Vogelpoel, managing director for Tele2 Netherlands' consumer activities, told Telecompaper that the company is still working on its plans and could choose to roll out alone or with a partner. Much will depend on the redivision of 900 and 1800MHz spectrum, which will need to be decided next year. Vogelpoel said the Netherlands mobile market has limited competition and offers room for more innovative and lower-priced mobile data services. The three incumbent operators also secured spectrum in the auction.
According to figures from the radio frequencies regulator AT, KPN paid EUR 909,000 for 20MHz paired spectrum in the 2535-2545 MHz and 2655-2665 MHz bands, Vodafone Netherlands paid EUR 200,000 for 20MHz in the 2500-2510 MHz and 2620-2630 MHz bands and T-Mobile Netherlands paid EUR 109,000 for 10MHz in the 2530-2535 MHz and 2650-2655 MHz bands. Only paired spectrum was sold in the auction, and 69.7GHz of upaired spectrum was left on the shelf. Acknowledging this spectrum is more suitable for Wimax than LTE, the ministry for economic affairs said it would look at alternatives for licensing these remaining radio frequencies.
T-Mobile, which plans to use its allocation for LTE, criticised the government's handling of the auction, saying it has created "unnecessary, inefficienct, artificial scarcity" by auctioning each band separately. The mobile operator called for a more integrated spectrum approach and clarity before the end of the year on the extension of GSM licences. In addition to looking out for newcomers on the market, the government also needs to provide certainty for existing operators planning infrastructure investments, the mobile operator said.
