On 26 October 2015, Ofcom published a statement on the Public Sector Spectrum Release (PSSR) covering competition and auction design issues for the award of spectrum licences in the 2.3GHz and 3.4GHz bands, which is planned for the latter part of the 2015/16 financial year.
The statement includes an Information Memorandum and the draft Regulations for the auction, which establish the auction rules and reserve prices. Ofcom has opted for a variant of the Simultaneous Multi-Round Ascending (SMRA) auction format, which features a number of modifications aimed at mitigating the risk of excessively fragmented outcomes. Reserve prices are set at £1 million per 5MHz block in the 3.4GHz band and £10 million per 10MHz block in the 2.3GHz band.
DotEcon advised Ofcom on the auction design for this award and has also been appointed to implement the auction. The auction will be run over DotEcon’s WebBidder secure on-line bidding platform.