HKT-CSL merger sets stage for mobile spectrum auction in fourth quarter
Cut in PCCW's spectrum under terms of CSL buyout approval and end to court challenge to allow industry regulator to widen market
With the approval of PCCW's latest acquisition in the telecommunications sector, the government has set the stage for auctioning chunks of 3G spectrum held by the city's leading mobile network operators.
The Communications Authority last Friday consented, with conditions, PCCW subsidiary HKT's US$2.43 billion takeover of CSL New World Mobility, the largest wireless services provider with 3.9 million subscribers as of June last year.
Prominent among the handful of conditions listed by the industry regulator were for HKT and CSL to divest a combined 29.6 megahertz of their existing 3G spectrum and to refrain from taking part in any 3G spectrum auction for five years.
The divested spectrum would be "made available for assignment to other mobile network operators and new entrants through a competitive bidding process that is planned for the fourth quarter", a spokesman for the authority said.
We were disappointed that no other operator had taken any action
A hefty reduction in spectrum holding for HKT-CSL "would avoid the effect of substantially lessening competition" in the market, according to the authority. It said the merged group would control 39 per cent of the 537MHz of 2G, 3G and 4G spectrum - the radio frequency bands over which wireless network services are provided - assigned by the government to date.
The authority had announced in November last year that the government would take back and auction off a third of the 3G spectrum held by each of the four incumbent 3G mobile network operators "to encourage competition and allow new investment to enter the local market".