09 September 2019

Hong Kong’s Office of Communications Authority (OFCA) has released details of its forthcoming 5G spectrum auctions. 

The autonomous territory in southeastern China is set to auction off 380MHz of spectrum in the 3.3GHz, 3.5GHz and 4.9GHz bands. 

Its big three mobile network operators will compete for a share of the spectrum that will help them to launch their 5G services in early 2020. 

OFCA will auction off 100MHz of 3.3GHz spectrum, 200MHz of 3.5GHz spectrum and 80MHz of 4.9GHz spectrum. 

“The communication authority will hold auctions of the three frequency bands in succession, starting with the 3.5 GHz band auction to be held on October 14th, 2019, followed by the 4.9 GHz band auction and then the 3.3 GHz band auction,” a spokesperson for OFCA said. “Parties interested in acquiring the 5G spectrum may have about two months to prepare their applications and submit them to OFCA on 12 and 13 September 2019. The Government has set the auction reserve prices for the use of spectrum in the 3.3 GHz, 3.5 GHz and 4.9 GHz bands at HK$2 million per MHz, HK$4 million per MHz and HK$3 million per MHz respectively. The actual amount of spectrum utilization fees payable will be determined in the respective auctions.” 

To avoid “an unduly high concentration of spectrum being held in the hands of a single spectrum assignee”, the spokesperson added that a spectrum cap of 70 MHz will be imposed on any assignee in the 3.5 GHz band auction and a spectrum cap of 40 MHz “will be imposed on any assignee in each of the 3.3 GHz band and 4.9 GHz band auctions”.