In the recent series of auctions, governments in the Asia-Pacific region have released a large number of low- and mid-band 5G spectrum.

The regulator ACMA announced that in the largest of these, Australia’s two major telecommunications companies paid 2.1 billion Australian dollars (approximately US$1.5 billion) for 850/900MHz spectrum. All 16 lots have been sold, Optus bought 12 for A$1.48 billion, and Telstra bought the remaining 4 for A$616 million.

Optus said that the newly added 2×25 MHz 900 MHz spectrum means a “significant improvement” in its national 5G coverage. Telstra Chief Financial Officer Vicki Brady said that the company now has 2x40MHz low-band spectrum covering major cities and 2x45MHz spectrum for regional and remote areas, which is more than any other operator.

The 900MHz frequency band was previously used for 2G, and the 850MHz frequency band was used for mobile communications for the first time.

This is the second Australian auction this year. In April this year, operators paid A$648 million for 2.4GHz millimeter wave spectrum, of which Telstra won the maximum value of 1000MHz. After auctions in Singapore and Hong Kong, the latest Australian auction took place.

Singapore has sold the 2.1GHz frequency to all three 5G operators. IMDA said that Singtel Mobile and StarHub-M1 consortium received 5×5 MHz and TPG Telecom 2x 5 MHz, respectively. Singapore Telecom and StarHub-M1 need to achieve 50% coverage by the end of 2022 and full coverage by 2025. TPG Telecom has reached 50% coverage of the NSA in two years.

In Hong Kong, Ofca just raised 1.88 billion Hong Kong dollars (US$240 million) through the sale of spectrum in the 700MHz, 800MHz, 2.5GHz and 4.9GHz frequency bands.

China Mobile Hong Kong is the largest consumer, spending HK$649 million to seize the 90MHz spectrum to ensure that it has the largest spectrum asset in Hong Kong. It now has a millimeter wave of 400MHz and a low-and mid-range frequency of 220MHz.

Operators are also resisting the government’s method of selling traditional spectrum. SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus rejected their price tags of up to 5.5 trillion won (US$4.7 billion) for 2G, 3G and 4G frequencies and called for an auction.