Hong Kong Completes Spectrum Auction

Hong Kong's Office of the Telecommunications Authority completed an auction for a total of 20 MHz of radio spectrum in the 850 MHz and 900 MHz Bands for a total sum of spectrum utilization fee of HK$1.952 billion (about US$250 million).



The two winning bidders are SmarTone Mobile Communications Limited and Hutchison Telephone Company Limited. Five mobile network operators and one fixed network operator took part in the spectrum auction.



"The mobile telecommunications service market has continued to boom in recent years. Take mobile data as an example. Total mobile data usage has witnessed an explosive growth with a year-on-year increase of 189%, from 638 terabytes in December 2009 to 1,847 terabytes in December 2010. The assignment of the radio spectrum through the auction enables the successful bidders to make use of the newly acquired spectrum to expand their existing networks with additional network capacity to meet the market demand. This is conducive to the further healthy development of the mobile market in Hong Kong," a spokesperson of OFTA said.



Conducted on an Internet-based software platform, the auction commenced on 28 February 2011 and was completed this afternoon after a total of forty one bidding rounds over four days.http://www.ofta.gov.hk