On 21 October 2013, the Austrian telecommunications regulator, RTR, announced the completion of the Austrian 800, 900 and 1800 MHz auction.

A total of 28 blocks of 2×5 MHz of spectrum were sold in the auction. The three incumbent operators A1 Telekom, T-Mobile and 3 Austria won spectrum in the auction. A1 Telekom won 14 blocks at €1,030m, T-Mobile won 9 blocks at €654m and 3 Austria won 5 blocks at €330m.

The auction saw prices that were higher than all comparable LTE auctions in Europe. The price per MHz per resident in the Austrian auction was €0.85 which is approximately 40% more than what was raised in the equivalent Irish 800, 900 and 1800 MHz auction held a year ago. Other LTE auction benchmarks from Germany, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark and France range between €0.29-€0.72 per MHz per resident, well below the revenue in the Austrian auction.

The Austrian regulator used the Combinatorial Clock Auction (CCA) format to allocate the licenses. This format had previously been used to allocate 2.6 GHz licenses in Austria in 2010 but some rules, e.g. concerning transparency were changed in the 800, 900 and 1800 MHz auction. Copenhagen Economics advised 3 Austria throughout the auction process.

For more information on spectrum auction support, please contact Senior Economist Frederik Harhoff