By Telecom Lead Team: Optus will buy Vividwireless from
Seven Group Holdings for $230 million. Optus will acquire all of Vividwireless’
operations, customers, spectrum licences and its network. The acquisition will
enable the company to own WiMAX and TD-LTE spectrum.
Optus will receive 98MHz of spectrum in the 2.3GHz
spectrum band that Vividwireless currently uses for WiMax and TD-LTE networks.
The company said that this will be incorporated into its
own 4G network, which will run on the 1800MHz spectrum band to be launched in
April, though this network has been built using FDD technology.
Vividwireless has used its spectrum to operate a WiMax
network across Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide.
“The acquisition of Vividwireless will give Optus a
significant increase in network capacity to address the next wave of data
growth that is just around the corner. By integrating it with our current 4G
roll-out, we will be able to provide increased mobile speeds to our customers
in metropolitan Australia,” said Optus CEO Paul O’Sullivan.
The agreement will be subject to Vividwireless being reissued
with licences for the 2.3GHz spectrum band, and approval from the competition
regulator and the Foreign Investment Review Board. Optus will fund the purchase
through internal funds and debt.
