VIENNA, Austria-The Austrian auction of third-generation licenses began today, amid investigations into illegal activities among some of the already-completed European 3G auctions.
In Austria, six bidders are competing for 12 licenses. Companies are expected to acquire up to three licenses.
After six rounds of bidding, bid totals were around $561 million. Mobilkom Austria, an incumbent mobile operator owned 75 percent by the government and 25 percent by Telecom Italia, held the highest bid of $54.9 million for one 2-by-5 megahertz frequency license.
The Alpine country’s three other incumbent operators are also participating. These include Connect Austria, in which Tele Danmark, Telenor, Viag Interkom and Orange plc all hold stakes; Max.mobil, owned 100 percent by Deutsche Telekom AG; and market newcomer Tele.ring, majority owned by Vodafone Group plc.
In addition, Telefonica and Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. are also participating.
Bids for each of the paired frequencies already exceed the minimum bid price of $43.7 million each, along with the minimum auction total of around $524 million.
The auction begins amid investigations into the concluded 3G auctions in Italy and the Netherlands. Last week, Italian authorities raided that country’s auction participants’ offices. International press reports have stated the officials suspect that collusion among participants may have resulted in its ending only two days after bidding began.
In the Netherlands, two participants-British Telecommunications plc’s Telfort and Versatel-are alleged to have discussed bidding tactics during the auction. Versatel dropped out of that auction, bringing it to an end.
