On 15th October 2001 the Radiocommunications Agency announced that it would be inviting bids for the remaining Spectrum licences at 28GHZ for Broadband Fixed Wireless Access (BWFA). Twenty six licences in eight English regions, Scotland and Wales are available and the licences will remain open for bids until 15th October 2002. Originally, 42 licences were made available by auction in November 2000, but only 16 licences were sold, mainly in areas of high population density, e.g. Gtr London, Gtr Manchester, Merseyside/Cheshire, West Midlands and Northern Ireland (which has no existing cable operators). Companies who obtained licences in the November 2000 auction were:
Region
Licence No.
Company
GT London
1
Energis Local Access Ltd
2
Broadnet UK Ltd
3
Fault Basic Ltd
GT Manchester/
2
Energis Local Access Ltd
Merseyside/
1
Your Communications Ltd (formerly Norweb)
Cheshire
3
Fault Basic Ltd
West Midland/s
1
Energis Local Access Ltd
Warwickshire/
2
Your Communications Ltd (formerly Norweb)
Staffs/Shropshire/
Herefordshire
3
Fault Basic Ltd
Yorkshire/
Lincolnshire
1
Energis Local Access Ltd
2
Your Communications Ltd (formerly Norweb)
3
Unsold
Tyne & Wear/
Durham/
Northumberland/
Lancs & Cumbria
2
Your Communications Ltd (formerly Norweb)
1
Unsold
3
Unsold
Scotland
2
Energis Local Access Ltd
1
Unsold
3
Unsold
Northern Ireland
1
Energis Local Access Ltd
2
Chorus Communication Ltd
3
Eircom NI Ltd
Regions D,E, F, G, H
All 3 licences in each region unsold
The remaining unsold licences, subject of the latest auction are offered for sale at reserve prices of £2 million (£1 million in Region J, Scotland, Wales and South West England), except where competing bids lead to all licences in each region being awarded by auction. In the first 3 months since the auction process opened there appears to have been little interest in the available licences, due to the downturn in the telecommunications market, the large investment in infrastructure that would be required to take advantage of the licences, and also due to the lack of availability of equipment to exploit the market.
For further information please contact David Roberts by telephone on +44(0)20 7367 3678 or by e-mail at david.roberts@cms-cmck.com; or contact Richard Eccles by telephone on +44(0)20 7367 3996 or by e-mail at richard.eccles@cms-cmck.com.
