By Sean Carney
PRAGUE--The Czech units of three major European
telecommunications operators have successfully bid for the rights
to high-speed, fourth-generation mobile network frequencies in the
Czech Republic, the country's telecommunications authority said
Tuesday.
The local units of Spain's Telefonica SA (TEF), T-Mobile--the
mobile arm of Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE.XE), and the
U.K.'s Vodafone Group PLC (VOD) submitted winning bids in an
auction for frequencies in the 800 megahertz range.
The companies will pay 2.80 billion koruna ($139 million),
CZK2.61 billion and CZK3.11 billion, respectively, for the
frequencies, the regulator said.
One of the purposes of the auction of Long Term Evolution
frequencies was to encourage a new entrant to the market to create
a fourth operator. But the regulator said two Czech start-ups that
had qualified to participate in the auction dropped out of the
bidding.
Consequently, the market will remain little changed, with the
three incumbent operators not having to fend off new
competition.
Write to Sean Carney at sean.carney@wsj.com
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