Hong Kong Brings Forward Wimax Spectrum Auction to 2008

Hong Kong’s OFTA has brought forward the auction of licenses for Wimax and other high-speed wireless technologies to the fourth quarter of next year. Marion Lai, director-general of telecommunications at telecom regulator OFTA, said the government would auction spectrum in the 2.5-2.69GHz bands by the fourth quarter together with an auction of 2.3 GHz spectrum for Broadband Wireless Access Services, which already had been planned for Q4 2008. Operators are expected to launch services in 2009.

“We are technology-neutral so winners of the auction are able to make their own decision to choose the BWA technology they like to deploy,” Lai said.

A press release issued by OFTA said, “WiMAX for BWA can coexist with other IMT-2000 standards in the frequency spectrum of 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz that have been identified by the International Telecommunication Union for IMT. OFTA’s proposal of allocating both the 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz bands for BWA services is therefore in line with the decisions of the WRC-07 and the RA-07.” Lai said OFTA has set aside 190 to 240 MHz of spectrum for BWA, which, when auctioned in blocks, should be enough for at least six licenses.

While the final frequency allocation must be coordinated with authorities in Guangdong, the neighboring province in mainland China, roughly 150 MHz will be provided for the 2.5 GHz band and 90 MHz for the 2.3 GHz band. OFTA said that a maximum of 30 MHz will be issued for any one bidder.

Details of the pre-qualification requirements, the auction rules and the reserve price will be released by OFTA later in 2008.

The regulator will also begin soon the second round of public consultation on the licensing of mobile TV, Lai said.

Source: Web 2.0 Telecom TV