Editorial: Never mind the cost of living, what about the cost of spectrum?

With this in mind, spare a thought for T-Mobile Austria, which is wondering how it is going to pay for the spectrum licence it won in the country’s recent auction.

The country’s highest administrative court rejected the company’s request for a temporary injunction against the auction result, meaning it has just had to hand over €654 million. Thank goodness for credit cards.

For the Austrian administration, it was as if Santa had come early. A large injection of cash was right at the top of the government’s Christmas list.

Even without the temporary injunction, however, T-Mobile’s legal proceedings are still in play. The company is arguing that the auction design meant one of the bidders could have been knocked out of the auction without any spectrum.

This forced operators to bid the value of their company, contrary to Austrian telecoms law, which says companies should only pay the market value for spectrum.

The case continues, as they say.

T-Mobile should also spare a thought for those less fortunate than themselves – such as Tele2, whose strong market position in Norway did not prevent it failing to win any spectrum at all in the auction that concluded last week. 

In the perennial tug-of-war between governments and operators over the cost of spectrum, maybe Brussels could help out, in some cases. That’s what French economist Gerard Pogorel thinks.