News & insights
Date: November 2024 | Sector: Communications, media & payment systems | Expertise: Transaction advisory and finance
Final regulations published for a forthcoming mmWave spectrum auction
On 11 November 2024, the UK communications regulator, Ofcom published its final regulations for a forthcoming mmWave spectrum auction in the 26 GHz and 40 GHz bands. The approach balances competitive allocation in high density areas with first come, first served in low density areas.
68 high density areas have been designated, comprising cities, major towns and a few transport hubs. The more attractive spectrum in the award is the 26 GHz band, which has been split into two parts reflecting current usage. Ofcom is partitioning each band into 200 MHz blocks for auction, with licences having 15 years duration and no roll out obligations. Each licence will apply across all 68 high density locations.
The auction process follows a familiar route, with qualification followed by bidding for generic lots in a clock stage. Once there is no excess demand across all lots, bidding in the clock phase ends. This will be followed by an assignment stage, where winning bidders participate in a sealed-bid second-price auction for specific frequency locations for contiguous lots won. Ofcom will determine the winning combination of bids as that which maximizes value. Reserve prices are modest, set at £2m for each 26 GHz lot and £1m for each 40 GHz lot, exactly what we advised in our March 2023 review of mmWave auctions.
Ofcom’s Information Memorandum may be found here.
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