Governments of two developing nations, Indonesia and Chile, are preparing to auction-off new 3G spectrum in the next few months.
In the case of Indonesia, this will be the second time the government will offer frequencies up for auction. Earlier tender led to only one local operator (Telkomsel) meeting the government’s reserve price of IDR160 billion (about $14.24 million). Now they plan to auction-off an additional 5MHz of spectrum to further expand 3G usage. New bidders are expected to include existing operators that failed to meet the government’s reserve price in the earlier auction – PT Indosat and Excelcomindo.
As for Chile, the country’s regulator, Subtel, has published details of a tender for 3G licenses. From there we learn that three blocks of 30MHz spectrum in the 1700MHz/2100MHz frequency band will be available. However, as the auction rules state, if any of the incumbent 2G mobile operators win a 3G license and the allocation causes them to exceed the 60MHz limit, they must agree to dispose of the excess spectrum. The Chilean 3G licenses will be awarded on 15th of July.
[Via: GSMA newsletter]