Orange this week announced that it will cease bidding for one block of 2.6 GHz spectrum in the ongoing Polish spectrum auction in an attempt to bring the process to a close more quickly.
The move will benefit all participants in the auction, Orange Polska said, in a statement.
The telco hopes by reducing demand for the spectrum the auction will not only finish sooner, but will also prevent spectrum prices from escalating, Coleago Consulting noted.
Orange is basically employing strategic demand reduction tactics, by sacrificing some of the spectrum it wants in return for lower prices for the spectrum it actually ends up winning.
"As operators increasingly explore the options for spectrum pooling and joint network builds, we may well see an increase in strategic demand reduction tactics," said Coleago’s managing director Graham Friend, in a statement.
Indeed, Orange itself said it hopes to encourage regulatory body, the Office of Electronic Communications (UKE), to allow cooperation between operators after the auction.
Market rival Polkomtel ceased active bidding for 800 MHz spectrum two weeks ago on the grounds that it feared the contest will distort competition. Specifically, Polkomtel said it was concerned that Orange and T-Mobile could seek to pool their resources after the auction in order to gain an advantage in the LTE market.
Polkomtel supports the idea of shared LTE networks in Poland, but is keen to avoid the market evolving in such a way that it would find itself at a disadvantage. It indicated that it is willing to cooperate with any winner of 800 MHz spectrum, particularly P4, NetNet and Hubb Investments.
Bidding in the 2.6 GHz auction has reached 407.17 million zloty (€99.8 million), the UKE reported on Wednesday, while the 800 MHz auction is up to PLN2.11 billion (€516.3 million).
