Swedish Post and Telecom Authority

Efficient spectrum awards and use

Joakim Persson, PTS, Sweden

Mobile coverage - population and area

Source: PTS, Operator coverage maps, European Commission, Digital Agenda Scoreboard 2014

Handheld outdoor

Pop Area

Voice >99,9%

84%

1 MBps 99% 39%

10 MBps

98% 42%

30 MBps

61% 2%

All operators handheld outdoor

Mobile internet access and mobile broadband

penetration

Source: GSMA Intelligence 2013, European Commission, Digital Agenda Scoreboard 2014

Early years• 1G

• 1980s, analogue• Niche market, McKinsey: ”900 000 subscribers in US

2000”• Televerket (now TeliaSonera) incumbent government

de-facto monopolist, spectrum management, ”only market space for one operator”

• Tele2 establishes NMT900• 2G

• GSM 1990s, digital, pan-European harmonised de-facto standard

• PTS established and takes over spectrum management from Telia

• Telia + Tele2: ”only market space for two operators”• Europolitan (later Vodafone, Telenor) establishes 3rd

GSM-network

Later years• 3G

• Sweden in EU 1994, new legal framework• UMTS 2000, ”broadband”• Beauty contest 2000, 4 licences (Tele2, Europolitan, HI3G,

Orange)• ”100%” population coverage = 8 860 000 people => Large

number of sites

• Network sharing: SUNAB (Telia+Tele2), 3GIS (Europolitan+HI3G)

• National roaming HI3G in Europolitan/Vodafone GSM• Orange returns license, spectrum divided among the other

three• Other beauty contests for 4th GSM license, FWA etc.• New Electronic Communications Act 2003 enables auctions• 450 MHz auction 2005, CDMA2000• HSPA 2007 ”real” broadband met real demand

Today• 4G

• Digital dividend – refarming of 800 MHz broadcasting spectrum

• A number of auctions 2007-2011 for 4G (LTE/WiMax), fixed link-spectrum/backhaul

• Re-assignment / prolongation / refarming of GSM-bands for UMTS/LTE etc.

• World’s first LTE-networks in Sweden and Norway by TeliaSonera 2009

• Large scale spectrum trading:• Tele2 & Telenor pools 2G/4G spectrum in Net4Mobility JV

(800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2.6 GHz)• 2.6 GHz 50 MHz TDD, Intel => HI3G

Band Year Format Blocks Cap Minimum bid

Participants

Winners Winning bids (MSEK)

System/ Consultants

Notes

450 MHz 2005 Single round sealed bid first price

1 block x 2 x 1.8 MHz FDD

1 license 1 SEK 5 1, Nordisk Mobil Telefoni AB

86 MSEK Later expanded to 2x5 MHz

3.6-3.8 GHz

2007 Simultaneous multi round ascending with switching

290 regions (municipal) x 4 blocks x 40 MHz(2 FDD & 2 TDD/ region)

1 40MHz-block per region

0.005 SEK/ MHz & pop

50 44 4.4 MSEK for 402 out of 1160 licences

Optimal Auctions, NERA

2.5-2.69 GHz

2008 SMRA with switching

14 blocks x 2 x 5 MHz FDD, 1 block x 50 MHz TDD

140 MHz 0.03 SEK/ MHz & pop

5 5, TeliaSonera, Tele2, Telenor, HI3G, Intel

2.1 Bn SEK

DotEcon

1900-1905 MHz

2008 Single round sealed bid first price

1 block x 5 MHz TDD

1 license 1 SEK 2 1, iBand 0.19 MSEK

28 GHz 2009 Clock auction

18 blocks x 2 x 28 MHz

8 blocks 50 000 SEK / block

3 3, Net4Mobility, TeliaSonera, HI3G

0.91 MSEK

PGP-encrypted e-mail1 EUR ≈ 9 SEK

Band Year Format Blocks Cap Minimum bid

Participants

Winners Winning bids (MSEK)

System/ Consultants

Notes

3.6-3.8 GHz II

2009 Limited combinatorial single round sealed bid first price, several auctions for clearing

758 municipal blocks x 40 MHz (FDD and TDD), 2 national blocks x 20 MHz (FDD/TDD)

- 1 SEK 6 6 4.3 MSEK for 118 licences

Left-over licences assigned according to first come-first served

10.5 GHz 2011 Full combinatorial single round sealed bid first price

3 blocks x 2 x 28 MHz

- 1 SEK 1 1, HI3G 4 MSEK for 2 blocks

3.4-3.6 GHz

2011 Single round sealed bid first price

13 regional (county) blocks x 2 x 28 MHz

- 1 SEK 1 1 0.1 MSEK for 1 license

800 MHz 2011 SMRA with switching

6 Blocks x 2 x 5 MHz FDD

2 blocks, 2x10 MHz

1.6 SEK/ MHz & pop

5 3, Net4Mobility, TeliaSonera, HI3G

2.05 Bn SEK

Computech

1 block with 300 MSEK of auction proceeds as roll-out obligation in appointed areas (1 Mbps broadband for households and companies)

1800 MHz

2011 Clock auction, Vickrey-Clarke-Groves placement round

7 blocks x 2 x 5 MHz FDD

- 0.1 SEK/ MHz & pop

3 2, Net4Mobility, TeliaSonera

1.35 Bn SEK

Optimal Auctions, NERA

1 EUR ≈ 9 SEK

Today’s challenges• Consumers’ rising dependence and expectations

of mobile coverage/capacity• Mobile behaviour, fixed-mobile substitution• Rural, in-door• Coverage is not about dBµV/m outdoors - it is based on

the consumer experience • “if it’s not working – it’s bad coverage”

• Long-term effects on competition of consolidation, network sharing, spectrum pooling?

• What is 5G supposed to be?