Australia 3G bids total A$842.4 mln after day two

date: 16th March 2001, source by: Reuters

At the end of day two of the Australian government's auction on Friday for third generation radio spectrum, the total of the high bids nudged up to A$842.35 million from A$804.35 million on Thursday.

The aggregate reserve price was set at A$1.08 billion.

The six bidders remaining in the auction are Telstra Corp Ltd, Cable & Wireless Optus Ltd, Vodafone Group Plc, Qualcomm Inc's 3G Investments, Hutchison Telecommunications Ltd, and ArrayCommInc's CKW Wireless.

Analysts said the major players were still jockeying for position and the bidding would likely heat up on Monday or Tuesday and could be finalised as soon as next Friday.

``There's enough room there for them all to get a national licence but Optus, Telstra and Vodafone would like to push 3G Investments to really see how much they're prepared to pay,'' said Reg Coutts, professor of telecommunications at the University of Adelaide.

The bids should easily reach the aggregate reserve price based on the offers laid on the table so far, but were unlikely to touch the government's target of raising around A$2 billion from 3G spectrum auctions, Coutts said.

The government has estimated it would raise about A$2.6 billion from total spectrum sales this fiscal year to end-June, but the forecast was made last May before a global downturn in telco stocks amid concern at capital spending.

3G mobile phone technology is expected to provide high-speed Internet access, data, video and CD-quality music services.

A breakdown on the bids so far showed that Telstra had bid A$221.3 million, Hutchison A$196.1 million, Optus A$203 million, 3G Investments bid A$185.5 million, Vodafone A$231.5 million and CKW Wireless A$7.95 million.

Successful bidders in the Australian auction will be allocated licences with a 15-year term, starting October 2002.

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