5G Competition to Accelerate Operators Eager to Hoard Resources

Whether through enterprise purchases or participation in spectrum auctions, operators across the country are busy gathering spectrum licences to hold a seat in the 5G era.

In the hundreds of millions of dollars of these transactions, Verizon successfully acquired Straight Path Communication become one of the big single. Straight Path shareholders gained $3 billion 100 million through deals, five times the stock value of the company, while Verizon also jumped into the dark horse of spectrum auctions. The attraction of Straight Path to Verizon lies in the 28GHz and 39GHz band spectrum, although Verizon has a lot of 28GHz resources, but this acquisition can increase its spectrum share by 20%. In addition, the spectrum of Straight Path in the 39GHz band is 12 times the sum of the share of other US carriers.

The acquisition of Three and UK Broadband is in progress. UK Broadband has 17000 customers and has access to a number of important bands. Three can acquire 40MHz spectrum in 3.4GHz, 3.6GHz and 3.9GHz bands through acquisition, although these spectrum can’t be used in mobile service yet, it has been labeled as optional band of 5G service.

In addition to corporate acquisitions, spectrum auction is also an important channel for hoarding resources. Ireland first launched a 3.6GHz band auction worth 78 million Euros, allocating nine regions of the 350MHz spectrum, which is seen as an important step in the deployment of 5G services in Europe. As the biggest winner of the auction, Vodafone spent 22 million 800 thousand euros in the 85MHz rural spectrum and 105MHz City spectrum revenue pocket.