Hong Kong’s Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA) has published the information memoranda for the auctions of radio spectrum in the 850/900 MHz, 2.3 GHz and 6/7 GHz bands. Parties interested in participating in the auctions can submit their applications to OFCA on 19 and 20 September. 

The Communications Authority (CA) and the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development (SCED) earlier decided to assign a total of 510 MHz of spectrum in these frequency bands through auction, for the provision of public mobile services including the 5G services. The spectrum will be used to upgrade 5G network capacity, service speed and coverage. 

The CA will conduct the auction of 110 MHz of re-assigned spectrum in the 850/900 MHz and 2.3 GHz bands on 11 November, followed by the auction of 400 MHz of new spectrum in the 6/7 GHz band on 25 November. The spectrum will be assigned to the successful bidders under unified carrier licences with a validity period of 15 years. 

The SCED has set the auction reserve prices for the use of the aforementioned spectrum at HKD 4 million per MHz for the 850/900 MHz and the 2.3 GHz bands, and HKD 2 million per MHz for the 6/7 GHz band. The actual amount of spectrum utilization fees payable will be determined through the respective auctions. 

To prevent over-concentration of spectrum holdings by a single spectrum assignee, the CA also reports it has set caps on the amount of spectrum that can be acquired by each assignee in the respective bands, which are 10 MHz for the 850/900 MHz band, 50 MHz for the 2.3 GHz band, and 140 MHz for the 6/7 GHz band.

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