NMHH clears four to bid for 900MHz spectrum

Hungary’s National Media and Infocommunications Authority (NMHH) has pre-selected four companies to bid for 900MHz spectrum at the regulator’s auction which is scheduled to take place later this month. The regulator has accepted applications to bid from the incumbent cellcos – Magyar Telekom (T-Mobile), Telenor (formerly Pannon) and Vodafone – whilst also approving a bid from a newcomer, a consortium consisting of Magyar Posta, local power firm MVM and a unit of the Hungarian development bank MFB. However, applications from Romania-based cable services provider RCS&RDS and one from the Vietnamese mobile group Viettel were rejected for failing to make the minimum requirements. It is understood RCS&RDS fell short of fulfilling a requirement to meet market regulator fees, while the Vietnam firm’s registration contained ‘several serious formal deficiencies that couldn’t be corrected’, the NMHH said. The watchdog will begin the auction of 10.8MHz of unused spectrum in the 900MHz band on 5 January and aims to complete the process on 31 January. Bidders are capped at a maximum of 7.8MHz of the frequencies on offer.