The 52-day bidding war for lots of 1.8 Ghz spectrum finally came to an end yesterday, with Hutchison Telecommunications and One.Tel both walking away with licenses in each of the five major capital cities.
In the auction which attracted $1.327 billion from carriers, Hutchison Telecommunications laid $671 million on the bidding table and One.Tel contributed $523 million.
Telco giant, Telstra acquired licenses in Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth and Sydney for $79 million and Vodafone paid $55 million in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth.
Following the conclusion of the auction, wild card bidder, Hutchison revealed its plans to build a wirefree data network across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.
The carrier, which successfully acquired 15 Mhz of spectrum in both Sydney and Melbourne and 10 Mhz in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth said the high speed network would possible deploy GPRS (general packet radio service) technology and EDGE (Enhanced Data for GSM Evolution) technology.
"While we are not yet wedded to any particular technology, GRPS with EDGE, which will deliver third generation speeds of 384 Kbps, is indicative of the speed and functionality we will require the successful vendor to deliver," Barry Roberts-Thomson, Hutchison's managing director said.
"At 384 Kbps, our new network will operate up to 27 times faster than existing mobile networks in Australia."