Germany to hold Europe's first 4G auction

Germany has opened Europe's first '4G' spectrum auction, allowing its four mobile operators to bid for slices of spectrum which will allow them to offer next-generation mobile broadband services.

With iPhone and other smartphone users hauling data across the existing 3G networks like there's no tomorrow, the race is on to open up the airwaves in order to expedite the the roll-out of the next mobile broadband standard, Long Term Evolution, or LTE. LTE is expected to bring faster, more efficient mobile broadband services, with speeds which could equal or even theoretically surpass that of fixed line connections. 

Although many countries are planning to go to auction with extra spectrum - some of which has been freed up by the move to digital TV - Germany is the first in Europe to get to that stage.  Demand for the spectrum is predicted to be high, with the government expected to pocket somewhere between 5 and 10 billion euros from the sale; and industry analysts will be watching carefully to get an idea of how much operators are willing to spend on new spectrum.

Michael Kovacocy, European telecoms analyst at Daiwa Capital Markets commented "This auction will be a good indication of how much operators are going to pay for licences throughout Europe and how serious they are in developing their mobile broadband vision."

Meanwhile the UK's own plans for using the 'digital dividend' towards better mobile broadband services are progressing slowly, initially held up by legal challenges and proposed mergers, and now condemned to further delays because no legislation was created prior to the general election.  With spectrum liberalisation now held until a new government can take the reins, it could be next year or later before a similar auction will be held here.