PL telco: Bids for 1800MHz spectrum

Poland’s telco market regulator UKE has announced it has received six bids for 1800MHz spectrums in the ongoing tender. The bidders are all four of Poland’s mobile telecoms (PTC, PTK, Polkomtel, P4), as well as Emitel and Sferia.
 
Our view:
Officially NFI Midas has not placed any bid at the auction; in our view, however this does not mean it will not receive any new spectrum. The bid from Sferia is a wise move by Mr Solorz, as the latter firm is likely to receive better scoring for low (individual) spectrum concentration and could potentially buy new spectrums at below the average price of the tender. We would not be surprised at all if Sferia was acquired by NFI Midas shortly after it buys the new spectrum. Such a purchase would give NFI Midas additional 1800MHz spectrum and could limit the competition’s expansion into LTE services. (We only expect the real LTE competition to emerge based on 800MHz, especially if Sferia purchases 1800MHz spectrum, i.e. not in the near future). In our view, given the scale of planned investments at Midas (PLN 1bn+), the firm would not face any problems in enhancing its investment program by 10% for Sferia.