Montenegro spectrum auction raises €50 million

Montengro’s incumbent mobile operators have bought up mobile spectrum in multiple bands, raising €50.6 million.

Montenegro's telecoms regulator last week announced the end of its multi-band spectrum auction which concluded with the country's three incumbent mobile operators picking up spectrum.

The Agency for Electronic Communications and Postal Services (EKIP) sold off spectrum in the 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2 GHz and 2.6 GHz bands in an auction that ran for a month and closed 2nd August.

At the pre-auction stage the regulator set aside some frequencies for new market entrants, however, when no interest in these was shown the spare spectrum was folded into the main auction.

It raised €56.65 million from the process overall, including €35.73 million via the main auction.

The country's three existing mobile operators – Crnogorski Telekom, indirectly owned by Deutsche Telekom and operates as T-Mobile, Telenor, and Telekom Srbija's Mtel – all bought spectrum, EKIP said.

Not all the available spectrum was assigned. EKIP calculated the value of unsold frequencies at €8.31 million, based on reserve prices.