"Kyivstar, Vodafone and lifecell want to buy new licenses for 4G in the 2.3 GHz band

All three Ukrainian operators ("Kyivstar", Vodafone Ukraine, and lifecell) have informed the industry telecom regulator NCCIR of their interest in purchasing licenses for an additional 4G frequency range - 2.3 GHz. In this range, there is 40 MHz of spectrum available.

After analyzing the demand, the regulator will propose to the Cabinet of Ministers to approve the license fee at auction terms for each of the ranges currently being studied. In addition to 2.3 GHz, there are also ranges of 2.1 GHz and 2.6 GHz. After that, the procedural part of the competition begins, which lasts approximately 4 months.

Currently, the nominal price for 1 MHz in the 2355-2400 MHz range is 985 thousand UAH in each region. Thus, the cost of a 40 MHz range license in 27 regions for 5 years exceeds 1 billion UAH.

There is already one application for the 2.6 GHz range. "Kabel TV Finances", a subsidiary of Vodafone Ukraine, has requested NCCIR to cancel its license for the obsolete technology "Multiservice Radio Access" in the 2575-2610 MHz band and issue a new license in the same range to develop modern mobile communication technologies. If the demand for this range exceeds one application, a tender will also be required.

At the same time, until February 15, the regulator was accepting applications for interest in frequencies in the 2.1 GHz range. Previously, they belonged to the 3G operator "Trimob."

Source: dev.ua