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UKE grants contiguous spectrum to T-Mobile and Orange in 800 MHz band.
Poland’s telecom regulator has finalised the allocation of spectrum suitable for LTE services, resolving a situation that was created when one of the licence winners pulled out of the process earlier this year.
Regulatory body the Office of Electronic Communications (UKE) announced the results of a long-running auction of frequencies in the 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz bands in October last year and in January formally allocated the spectrum to the winning operators, giving them two weeks to pay the sums pledged.
However, Netnet, which won one 5-MHz block of 800-MHz spectrum, reneged on the deal, triggering discussions between the regulator and the remaining licence winners regarding the destination of that spectrum block and the position of other frequency allocations.
On Thursday the UKE confirmed that the remaining 5 MHz of 800-MHz spectrum would go to T-Mobile Polska, as expected, and shared details of the positions awarded to the other two winning companies, Orange and P4.
T-Mobile, which initially won one 800-MHz spectrum block in the sale, was granted two contiguous blocks at 806 MHz-816 MHz/847 MHz-857 MHz.
Orange’s two blocks stand at 791 MHz-801 MHz/832 MHz-842 MHz, while P4 comes in between its rivals with one block at 801 MHz-806 MHz/842 MHz-847 MHz.
UKE president Magdalena Gaj described the process of finalising the spectrum allocations as the most important in recent years.
The process "opens a new stage in the development of the mobile Internet in Poland," she said, in a local language statement.
Allowing T-Mobile and Orange contiguous frequencies in the 800-MHz band will make more efficient use of the band, Gaj noted.
The regulator did not change any spectrum positions in the 2.6 GHz band, which is split between Orange and T-Mobile with three paired 5-MHz blocks each, and Polkomtel and P4 which each hold four blocks.
