The government has fallen about $1 billion short of the $3bn revenue windfall it had hoped to reap from the sale of valuable wireless spectrum to the nation's leading telecoms companies.
After two weeks of secret bidding, Telstra, Optus and TPG Telecom have forked out a combined $2bn to acquire wireless spectrum in the government's digital dividend auctions.
The sale of the spectrum, which Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has referred to as the “waterfront property'' of the mobile phone industry, was expected to fetch as much as $3bn had the nation’s telecoms companies decided to buy as much of the asset as they are permitted.
But today the ACMA has revealed the proceeds of that auction fell well short of the government’s hoped target.
“15 MHz paired of the 700 MHz spectrum, worth in the order of $1 billion, remains in the Commonwealth’s hands for now, and we intend to return it to the market in the next two or three years,” Senator Conroy said.
