Denmark has postponed its planned auction of 700MHz, 900MHz and 2.3GHz spectrum a day before the process was due to begin.
In a brief statement, the Danish Energy Agency said “the delay is due to unforeseen circumstances.”
No further explanation was given, and the watchdog said it will not make additional comments at this time. It did not disclose a planned new date for the auction either.
Incumbent TDC, 3 Denmark’s Hi3G, and Telia’s and Telenor’s jointly-owned infrastructure arm TT Network had all qualified to participate in the auction, scheduled for Tuesday 25 September.
The Danish Energy Agency finalised the auction rules in June. Spectrum licences were to be nationwide and technology-neutral.
Coverage obligations of 30Mbps downlink and 3Mbps uplink for 90% of the country were attached to certain licences in the 700MHz and 900MHz bands. Winners of certain 2.3GHz spectrum licences would have been required to rollout 50Mbps downlink/5Mbps uplink coverage to 98% of addresses specified within the licence itself.
The spectrum is currently in use, but the licences will expire at the end of 2019.