The Austrian regulatory authority RTR is auctioning frequency packages for the purpose of providing wireless local access (details of the geographical and technical divisions are provided in the second part of this T-REGS news item).
The auction will be conducted in two phases. In a first phase, operators will be invited to express their interest and will be scrutinized on their economic and technical capabilities. In a second phase, those contenders who meet the economic and technical criteria will be admitted to the auction.
The auction will be held in Oct/Nov 2004 according to an “open, ascending, simultaneous multiple rounds” procedure.
Letters of interest must be received by the RTR by 9 Sep 2004.
Click here to see the regions for which the frequency packages will be auctioned.
The frequency packages to be auctioned can be viewed by clicking here.
The frequencies will only be auctioned as packages, in accordance with the table determined by the RTR.
A bid can only be placed if a valid application has been filed for this region by the applicant. A bidder can only bid on one frequency package for any given region per round.
Successful bidders will have a coverage obligation for the area in which they will be active. The coverage is calculated in number of municipalities per region (in Region 1, for example, 69 municipalities will have to be covered by 31 December 2007). A guarantee (penalty) will be due if the coverage is not achieved (e.g. up to €400.000 in region 1).
In order to be able to participate in the auction, bidders must submit a complete application according to the specifications set out in Ausschreibungsunterlage im Verfahren betreffend Frequenzzuteilungen im Frequenzbereich 3,5 GHz.
The application must contain information regarding the technical capabilities of the contender, network planning details, financial capacity (including a business plan), and financing. Only applicants with a complete application which demonstrates the ability to roll out a network that meets the standards of the regulatory authority will be entitled to bid.
The applicants will have to provide a bank guarantee in order to be considered for the auction. The bank guarantee is dependent upon the frequency package(s) the applicant wishes to bid for (up to €480.000 for the most expensive region).