5G spectrum auction in France fetched $3.3 billion or about 2.8 billion euros as four mobile carriers Orange, Altice Europe’s SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Iliad participated for buying frequencies.
The 5G spectrum auction in France ended on Thursday.
The sale, overseen by telecoms regulator Arcep, caps a year-long process for mobile carriers Orange, Altice Europe’s SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Iliad. Four companies competed for the acquisition of 11 blocks of 10 Megahertz (MHz), or 110 MHz.
The cost of a single block reached a final price of 126 million euros on Thursday, following 17 rounds over three days, Arcep said.
This brings the total price for the whole spectrum to 2.8 billion euros, which is 630 million euros more than the floor price the government had set.
The sale comprised a total of 310 Megahertz (MHz). The government had already agreed to sell a block of 50 MHz to each telecoms operator for 350 million euros, or 1.4 billion euros in total.
The remaining 110 MHz that were on sale reached a final price of 126 million euros per block on Thursday, bringing the total amount yielded from the auction to 1.39 billion euros.
Orange was attributed four blocks, followed by SFR (3 blocks), Bouygues Telecom (2 blocks) and Iliad (2 blocks), Arcep said.
