The Spanish auction for the award of licences of use of radio frequencies in the 900MHz and 2.6GHz bands (order ITC/2499/2011 the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce) concluded on 10 November 2011 after 8 rounds of bidding. The auction, in which the spectrum that went unsold in the previous Multi-Band auction conducted during June and July 2011 was offered, followed a Simultaneous Multi-Round Ascending auction format very similar to that used in the previous auction.
Seven out of the eight bidders secured spectrum licences: Telefónica obtained the licence for the 2×4.8MHz block offered in the 900MHz band, Vodafone and France Telecom each obtained national licences for 20MHz and 10MHz respectively of TDD spectrum in the 2.6GHz centre band, while Cota, Euskaltel, R Cable and Telecable obtained regional licences for 10MHz of TDD spectrm in the 2.6GHz centre band in the region where they operate (Murcia, País Vasco, Galicia and Asturias respectively). WiMax, the only operator who had not participated in the previous award, did not win any licences. The regional licences for 10MHz of TDD spectrum in the 2.6GHz centre band in other regions went unsold, along with the regional licence for 2x10MHz (FDD) 2.6GHz spectrum in Extremadura (the only licence for paired spectrum in the 2.6GHz band that had been left over from the previous award). The auction raised slightly over €185 million revenue, with which the total revenue raised from the award of spectrum this year (consisting of a first award by beauty contest and two auctions) reached €2 billion, as planned by the Government. Further information can be found on the Ministry’s website.
This auction was implemented with DotEcon’s WebBidder auction platform. More information on WebBidder can be found here