Germany prepares to launch LTE using digital dividend spectrum

Source: Wireless Intelligence
Germany became one of the first countries in Europe to redistribute the so-called ‘digital dividend’ bandwidth to mobile operators in a spectrum auction that closed late last week. The auctions – which netted the government around EUR4.38 billion in total – were contested solely by the country’s four existing mobile operators and were wrapped-up after 224 rounds of bidding for the 41 blocks of spectrum on offer. However, the auctions raised less than expected – advisory firm KPMG had predicted total gains of around EUR6 billion to EUR8 billion – and fell well short of the EUR50 billion generated from the sale of Germany’s first 3G licenses a decade ago.