SK Telecom big spender in South Korean auction

The Korean government wrapped up its most recent spectrum auction, with three carriers securing additional spectrum assets needed to feed ever increasing demand for mobile services.
SK Telecom Co. Ltd. (SKM) was the biggest spender coughing up more than $926 million for 20 megahertz of spectrum in the 1.8 GHz band. SK Telecom said it planned to use LTE technology across the new spectrum to offer mobile broadband services.
KT Corp. (KT), which was also bidding for the 1.8 GHz spectrum, wound up with a winning bid of $243 million for 10 megahertz of spectrum in the 800 MHz band. The carrier also plans to deploy LTE services with its new spectrum.
LG Uplus managed to pick up 20 megahertz of spectrum in the 2.1 GHz band, which the Korean government prevented SK and KT from bidding on as it wanted to open up that band for new entrants. Those two operators currently control just over 80% of the country’s mobile market share. LG ended up the sole bidder for the license, which it acquired at the minimum price of $412 million. Analysts noted that with operations already in the 2.1 GHz band, LG will be able to immediately begin using its new spectrum assets.
“LG Uplus’s new 2100 MHz spectrum award complements its previous license holdings in this band,” noted Morgan Mullooly, research analyst at Analysys Mason. “This will allow the operator to position itself to compete more actively with the two dominant operators, providing more capacity, which will help mitigate the risk of network downtime. Furthermore, it will provide more choice to MVNOs to secure favorable partnership agreements for LTE wholesale services and network access, and further aggressive pricing can be expected.”