Poland to Auction Off Radio Spectrum for LTE Services:

Poland's telecoms regulator, the UKE has announced plans to auction off blocks of radio spectrum in the 800Mhz and 2.6Ghz bands.

The participants to the first auction of this type in Poland will compete for 5 licences in the 800MHz band and for 14 frequencies in the 2.6 GHz band.

The auction participants will be committed to commencing the use of the frequencies and to commercial launch of their services within 12 months of the date of delivery of the general exclusive frequency licence in the 800MHz band and not later than within 36 months of the date of delivery of the general exclusive frequency licence in the 2.6GHz band.

Moreover, the auction participants who receive general exclusive frequency licences in the 800 MHz band will be committed to covering with their own network at least 83-89% of the communes, listed by the regulator within 24 months. In total there are 1242 such communes in Poland and only several have more than 20,000 inhabitants.

The regulator added in a separate statement that it will support the use of shared network infrastructure by the mobile networks, although the curiously rambling statement did not elaborate on the details of their opinion.