Applications open for auctions of spectrum in 850/900 MHz, 2.3 GHz and 6/7 GHz bands

     The Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA) today (July 19) published the information memoranda for the auctions of radio spectrum in the 850/900 MHz, 2.3 GHz and 6/7 GHz bands and invited interested parties to submit applications.
 
     A spokesperson for OFCA said, "The Communications Authority (CA) and the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development (SCED) issued joint statements in May last year and March this year, announcing the decisions to assign a total of 510 MHz of spectrum in the aforementioned bands through auction within this year for the provision of public mobile services including the fifth generation (5G) services. The assignment will further promote the development of 5G services in terms of network capacity, service speed and coverage."
 
     The CA will conduct the auction of 110 MHz of re-assigned spectrum in the 850/900 MHz and 2.3 GHz bands on November 11, followed by the auction of 400 MHz of new spectrum in the 6/7 GHz band on November 25. The spectrum will be assigned to the successful bidders under unified carrier licences with a validity period of 15 years. Parties interested in participating in the auctions may submit their applications to OFCA on September 19 and 20.
 
     The SCED has set the auction reserve prices for the use of the aforementioned spectrum, viz. $4 million per MHz for the 850/900 MHz and the 2.3 GHz bands, and $2 million per MHz for the 6/7 GHz band. The actual amount of spectrum utilization fees payable will be determined through the respective auctions.
 
     The spokesperson added, "To prevent over-concentration of spectrum holdings by a single spectrum assignee, the CA has set caps on the amount of spectrum that can be acquired by each assignee in the respective bands, which are 10 MHz for the 850/900 MHz band, 50 MHz for the 2.3 GHz band, and 140 MHz for the 6/7 GHz band."
 
     Detailed arrangements of the auctions are set out in the information memoranda which are available on OFCA's website:
 
For the 850/900 MHz and 2.3 GHz bands:
www.ofca.gov.hk/filemanager/ofca/en/content_1712/850_900_mhz_and_2_3_ghz_bands_auction_IM.pdf

For the 6/7 GHz band:
www.ofca.gov.hk/filemanager/ofca/en/content_1713/6_7_ghz_band_auction_IM.pdf