New Zealand's Telecom happy with its 700 MHz spectrum allocation

The New Zealand government has announced the completion of the assignment round of the 700 MHz radio spectrum auction process. This final round was to determine the location within the band for the differing lots of spectrum purchased by Telecom, 2Degrees and Vodafone during earlier auction rounds.

Telecom bid NZ$9.1 million in this round, bringing the total amount bid over the auction process to NZ$158.1 million, for four lots of 700 MHz spectrum and for its preferred location of those lots within the spectrum band. This is for an 18-year licence period.

Telecom Chief Executive Simon Moutter said, “Our location at the bottom end of the band provides us with alignment with the 700 MHz spectrum that has been allocated in Australia and gives us additional confidence about the device ecosystem.

“We are also pleased to be the only mobile network operator with four lots of 700 MHz spectrum. This will provide significant benefits to customers in terms of the potential speed and capacity of Telecom’s 4G mobile network. We’re now looking forward to getting on with our delivery of a very high-performance 700 MHz 4G mobile network for New Zealand, subject to the availability of 700 MHZ capable mobile devices.”

Telecom has already begun trialling its high-speed 4G data network over 700 MHz spectrum, alongside partner Huawei Technologies. The non-commercial trial, involving selected customers, will inform the future network build.