The chief executive of telecommunications minnow CallPlus is calling on the Government to ban Telecom and Vodafone from bidding in an auction of radio spectrum.
Martin Wylie said Telecom and Vodafone could spend just a couple of million dollars buying spectrum and sit on it, which would delay competition in wireless broadband for years.
The Government confirmed in November that it would not renew existing management rights to the 2.3GHz wireless broadband spectrum after 2010, instead favouring an auction.
It is planning to hold the spectrum auction in late May and submissions and feedback on the process close on Friday.
Mr Wylie said the Government appeared to be relying heavily on a “use it or lose it” clause - spectrum would taken back after five years if it was not used - to discourage big companies from bidding and sitting on spectrum.
The problem with that was the penalty was peanuts for the big players, he said.
The 2.3GHz band is suitable for emerging wireless broadband service WiMAX.
Established in 1996, CallPlus and its subsidiary Slingshot are now New Zealand’s third-largest fixed-line, voice and Internet company.
CallPlus announced recently that it had secured funding from a Japanese trading house to bankroll the development of a national WiMax network.

Posted: 04|24|07 at 6:10 pm. Filed under: Auction News.