Auction date coming

By MICHAEL FOREMAN

The auction of radio frequencies in the 2GHz range, delayed several times, will now go ahead in the middle of the year.

The Acting Minister of Communications and Commerce, Trevor Mallard, said details of the spectrum auction would be announced in two weeks. He expected it to take place in the middle of the year.

The auction was delayed late last year because of Maori claims under the Treaty of Waitangi.

Mr Mallard promised that the auction would be "no beauty contest" and each of the three blocks would be sold and maintained under "separate beneficial ownership." Licences will run for 20 years, but will be transferable to companies other than those already owning blocks.

Mr Mallard said that while more money could be raised by a non-competitive tender, the Government's objective was to drive down the price of the technology to the consumer and bring it on to the market as quickly as possible. He added that mobile telephony would be included as part of a general Government review of communications, which would take place soon although no timetable had been set.

While it was expected that existing operators such as Telecom, Vodafone and Clear would bid for spectrum blocks, Mr Mallard said, it was possible other international operators might use New Zealand as an experimental installation.

Meanwhile Ericsson New Zealand has shown off "third generation" (3G) mobile phone technology at the start of the first trial in Australia or New Zealand.

Third generation technology will allow high-speed internet access on the move, and is expected to herald the introduction of videophones within about two years.

Goran Olsson, managing director of Ericsson, said 3G technology would be commonplace within a couple of years and predicted that internet services on mobile phones would become the "de facto mechanism to communicate."

* Vodafone New Zealand plans trials of a general packet radio service utilising Nokia's wireless application protocol.