Having won an 800MHz 4G mobile licence last month, 365 Media, the largest mass media company in Iceland, has announced its plans for launching Long Term Evolution (LTE) services. In the auction, which was monitored by Iceland’s Post and Telecom Administration (PTA), 365 Media offered the highest bids for two frequency blocks, under licences valid for 25 years and ten years respectively. The company paid ISK120 million (USD1 million) for the bandwidth allocations. 365 Media has committed to build a mobile network that extends to 99.5% of the Icelandic population by the end of 2016, with expected peak download speed of 100Mbps.
TeleGeography notes that 365 Media spent more in the 4G auction than the other three licence winners combined: the country’s three main cellcos Simmin, Vodafone Iceland (Fjarskipti) and Nova bid a total of ISK105 million for their 800MHz/1800MHz licences.
Currently, 365 Media operates six television channels, five radio stations and publishes newspapers and periodicals (including Iceland’s most widely read paper, Frettabladid). The company owns and runs Iceland’s largest subscription TV channel – Channel 2, radio station Bylgjan, as well as news and entertainment website Visir.is.