Spectrum Auction

Mar 28, 2013 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's Dialog Axiata has paid 3.



2 billion rupees to buy a 10Mega Hertz block of spectrum in the 1,800MHz band which can be used for fourth generation high speed mobile broadband, telecom regulator Anusha Pelpita said. Mobitel and Etisalat had also participated in the spectrum auction by Sri Lanka Telecommunications Regulatory Commission and Dialog Axiata outbid the nearest rival by 2.



0 billion rupees.

"The auction was done by sealed bids and the differences in bids, showing that it was a transparent process," Pelpita said.

He said operators are expected to use it for fourth generation LTE services.

Dialog Axiata already had 15MHz in the 1,800 band.

Mobitel and 20MHz, Etisalat, Hutch, Airtel and another firm had 7.



5MHz each but it was in court.

The frequencies are in paired bands of 75MHz for uplink and downlink, which means the operator was actually occupying double the spectrum in the band which span 1,700 and 1,800 MHz.

The auction had set a floor price of 800 million rupees for the frequency block, Randora.

lk a Sinhalese language news portal which broke the story said.