Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica Fight for German Frequency
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Europe’s three biggest phone companies will gather in a small German town next week for a government auction of mobile frequencies that will be closely watched by regulators and carriers across the continent.
Deutsche Telekom AG, Vodafone Group Plc and Telefonica SA will bid for airwaves, including for the first time blocks of 700 megahertz band occupied by broadcasters that are important for improving mobile broadband coverage in cities. The sale starts at 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) and the final outcome for all frequencies may come close to the 4.4 billion euros raised in the last auction in 2010, according to analysts at Warburg Research.