Poland raised more than €2 billion from the sale of spectrum suitable for 4G services, with Orange accounting for over a third of the total, the country’s telecom regulator announced on Monday.
Six companies have been battling it out for 19 blocks of spectrum in the 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz bands, and five emerged victorious, the Office of Electronic Communications (UKE) revealed on Monday.
The five together committed 9.23 billion zloty (€2.18 billion). The five blocks of 800-MHz spectrum attracted the bulk of the total at PLN8.62 billion (€2.04 billion).
The biggest spender in the process was Orange, which acquired two blocks of 800-MHz airwaves for PLN3.05 billion, plus three blocks of 2.6-GHz frequencies. Its total bill came in at PLN3.17 billion (€748 million).
T-Mobile, Netnet and P4 each acquired one lot of 800-MHz spectrum, paying PLN2.02 billion, PLN2.05 billion and PLN1.5 billion respectiv ely.
T-Mobile also picked up three lots of 2.6-GHz spectrum and P4 four lots, raising their total spend to PLN2.14 billion and PLN1.72 billion.
Polkomtel, which stopped bidding on the 800 MHz band as long ago as March, paid PLN155.7 million (€36.8 million) for four blocks of spectrum in the 2.6 GHz band.
It withdrew from the 800-MHz sale claiming that the market would be best served by one or two LTE networks shared between operators. It indicated that it will look for partners in order to gain access to the 800 MHz band.
The sixth bidder, Hubb Investments, did not win any spectrum, according to the UKE’s report.
