By Lucy Craymer
WELLINGTON--New Zealand has completed initial allocation of
radio spectrum earmarked for fourth generation mobile networks,
with the country's major telecommunications companies picking up
the new spectrum.
Amy Adams, government minister responsible for technology, said
Wednesday that Telecom Corp. of New Zealand (TEL.NZ) and Vodafone
New Zealand, a subsidiary of U.K.-based Vodafone Group. (VOD.LN),
have paid 66 million New Zealand dollars (US$54.8 million) for
their allocation while 2degrees paid NZ$44 million. The prices
don't include the 15% tax the companies will also have to pay.
"Overall, this is a successful outcome for the auction that
bodes well for the future of competitive fourth generation mobile
services in New Zealand," Ms. Adams said.
The auction has been marred in controversy.
According to indigenous Maori tribes, the government doesn't
have the authority to auction off spectrum because Britain
guaranteed the rights of unspecified national resources to New
Zealand's first people in a landmark 173-year-old treaty, the
Treaty of Waitangi. The Maori say that makes the spectrum their
rightful property, even though the pact predates the invention of
the radio by several decades.
The case is currently before the Waitangi Tribunal, a commission
that deals with grievances raised by the indigenous Maori
population, but no decision has been made or any time frame given
for the case to be heard and the government went ahead with the
auction.
Successful bidders will have five years in which to pay for
their spectrum under a plan to encourage new and noncellular
operators to participate in the auction.
Write to Lucy Craymer at lucy.craymer@wsj.com
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