Telecom's radio spectrum buy under scrutiny

Telecom has gone ahead with the acquisition of a slice of radio spectrum suitable for WiMax without regulatory clearance.

The Commerce Commission said Telecom had cancelled its application for clearance for the deal to buy the slice of 3.5 Gigahertz spectrum from Counties Power.

Instead, the commission said, Telecom had bought the spectrum without clearance and it was now investigating whether the acquisition was a breach of competition rules.

Telecom's agreed purchase date for the spectrum would have expired if it had not gone ahead with the deal as the commission had delayed its decision on its application, a Telecom spokesman said.

He said Telecom was "totally confident there is no competition issue involved at all" as it was a small block of the spectrum, chunks of which were already owned by its competitors.

"We've advised the commission that we're happy to co-operate with them in the ongoing process."

WiMax is a fledgling high-powered wireless broadband data system which is tipped to become an industry standard within a few years.