Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) is pleased to have acquired 2 x 5MHz of spectrum in the 700MHz band auction, for the reserve price of $286 million. This is $1.25 per MHz, per head of population. The acquisition is on the same terms VHA proposed to government in 2015.
The 700 MHz spectrum, combined with our other existing low band spectrum holdings, will help support our customers’ growing appetite for data.
We are also pleased to confirm we recently accepted the ACMA’s offer to renew our 2100 MHz spectrum for $544 million, including 2 x 25 MHz in Sydney and Melbourne. Certainty over the 2100 MHz spectrum further reduces the need for incremental spectrum in the next few years. In metropolitan areas, we now have the second largest metropolitan low-band spectrum holding, and the largest holdings in the key 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz bands.
The recent independent P3 network benchmark tests confirmed through exhaustive testing that VHA has the best performing mobile network in cities above 100,000 population.
We previously expressed an interest in acquiring 2 x 10 MHz of spectrum in 2015, but since then we have accelerated the re-deployment of our other existing spectrum for 4G, and have put in place plans to deploy leading-edge features in our network.
VHA’s spectrum holdings:
- 700MHz: 2 x 5MHz
- 850MHz: 2 x 10 MHz in metropolitan areas, 2 x 5 MHz in regional areas
- 900 MHz: 2 x 8.2 MHz nationally
- 1800 MHz: 2 x 30 MHz in SYD/MEL, 2 x 25 MHz in BNE/ADL/PER/CBR, 2 x 5 MHz to 2 x 10 MHz in other areas
- 2100 MHz: 2 x 25 MHz in SYD/MEL, 2 x 20 MHz in BNE/ADL/PER, 2 x 10 MHz in CBR/HOB/DRW, 2 x 5 MHz in other areas