“A competitive and innovative telecommunications market is critical to the long term economic prosperity of the UK. In that context, Ofcom is proposing an auction design primarily aimed at achieving such a competitive market structure while also raising significant revenues for the Treasury.
“Existing mobile operators in the UK have all expressed an interest and may be joined by other market players willing to enter the bidding process. Ofcom is currently consulting on various features of the auction, expected to take place in 2012, including the reserve price (minimum price) for bidding.
“However, the total proceeds generated by the auction may well be much higher than the minimum or set figures, although we are unlikely to see the prices/revenues achieved in 2000 for 3G licenses.”