New Zealand Government: Telecom, 2degrees, Vodafone Acquire New Spectrum in Government Auction

   By Lucy Craymer 
 

WELLINGTON--New Zealand has completed initial allocation of radio spectrum earmarked for fourth generation mobile networks, with the country's major telecommunications companies picking up the new spectrum.

Amy Adams, government minister responsible for technology, said Wednesday that Telecom Corp. of New Zealand (TEL.NZ) and Vodafone New Zealand, a subsidiary of U.K.-based Vodafone Group. (VOD.LN), have paid 66 million New Zealand dollars (US$54.8 million) for their allocation while 2degrees paid NZ$44 million. The prices don't include the 15% tax the companies will also have to pay.

"Overall, this is a successful outcome for the auction that bodes well for the future of competitive fourth generation mobile services in New Zealand," Ms. Adams said.

The auction has been marred in controversy.

According to indigenous Maori tribes, the government doesn't have the authority to auction off spectrum because Britain guaranteed the rights of unspecified national resources to New Zealand's first people in a landmark 173-year-old treaty, the Treaty of Waitangi. The Maori say that makes the spectrum their rightful property, even though the pact predates the invention of the radio by several decades.

The case is currently before the Waitangi Tribunal, a commission that deals with grievances raised by the indigenous Maori population, but no decision has been made or any time frame given for the case to be heard and the government went ahead with the auction.

Successful bidders will have five years in which to pay for their spectrum under a plan to encourage new and noncellular operators to participate in the auction.

Write to Lucy Craymer at [e-mail]

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