Spain's communications regulator CNMC has approved a report that proposes increasing the current mobile spectrum holdings cap of 185 MHz per operator. The watchdog said the limit was set in 2011 and the recent mergers of Vodafone with Ono and Orange with Jazztel means that Vodafone and Orange now exceed the maximum, requiring them to hand back part of their spectrum to the industry ministry. Movistar (Telefonica) has 164.4 MHz, while Yoigo has just 64.6 MHz, and no spectrum whatsoever in the lower frequency bands, requiring it to reach a national roaming agreement with Movistar.
In the report, the CNMC states that the proposal to increase the spectrum limit presents “significant benefits from a technical and technological development standpoint for operators who are currently limited in their ability to acquire new spectrum." However, under the terms of the proposal, any operator that exceeds the current limit will have to provide wholesale access to the spectrum on “reasonable” terms.
The CNMC’s move follows a recent report in Expansion indicating that the industry ministry will hold auctions for frequencies in the 2.6 GHz and 3.5 GHz bands at the start of next year. The 2.6 GHz frequencies were freed up following Vodafone Spain’s acquisition of Ono in July 2014, with the operator exceeding its spectrum holdings cap. The operators Yoigo and MasMovil are said to be interested in acquiring the spectrum, which will be offered at a starting price of EUR 5 million, said the report.
