The auction for licences in the 700 MHz, 900 MHz and 2.3 GHz bands in Denmark has ended, raising over DKK 2.2 billion.
All three of the MNOs in Denmark won spectrum in the 700 MHz and 900 MHz bands. TDC was awarded the most overall, paying DKK 1.6 billion for 2×10 MHz of paired spectrum in the 700 MHz band, 20 MHz of 700 MHz supplemental downlink spectrum, 2×10 MHz in the 900 MHz band, and 60 MHz in the 2.3 GHz band. Hi3G won 2×10 MHz in each of the 700 MHz and 900 MHz bands, for a total price of DKK 485.2 million. TT-Network paid DKK 107.6 million for 2×5 MHz in the 700 MHz band and 2×10 MHz of 900 MHz spectrum.
With the aim of improving mobile coverage in Denmark, the 900 MHz licences were allocated with regional coverage obligations attached, with each operator required to serve a (different) set of specific addresses with minimum speeds of 30 Mbit/s download and 3 Mbit/s upload as well as voice coverage by April 2022. These lots were made available before the rest of the spectrum in an initial stage under conditions of limited competition (each bidder was able to acquire at most one of these lots) – the Danish Energy Agency adopted a similar approach for the auction of 1800 MHz spectrum in 2016.
The remaining spectrum was then assigned (initially as frequency-generic lots) using a Combinatorial Multi-Round Ascending (CMRA) auction – designed by DotEcon, and used previously by the DEA for the 1800 MHz award – in which bidders could submit multiple bids each round, subject to constraints that linked bid amounts to round prices and the bidder’s activity in preceding rounds. A follow-up assignment stage that allowed bidders to express any preferences over different locations within each band was subsequently run to establish the specific frequencies to be assigned to winning bidders.
DotEcon advised the Danish Energy Agency on the design and implementation of the award, which was run using DotEcon’s online bidding platform, WebBidder™. More information on the award is available from the Danish Energy Agency’s website.