British telecoms regulator Ofcom has published its proposed licence fees for paired spectrum in the 400MHz band, currently licensed to Arqiva and Airwave, calling for feedback from interested parties by a 16 July 2021 deadline.
With Arqiva having won its spectrum at auction in 2006, with an initial 15-year period where no additional fees would be required, the regulator noted that with this period coming to in October this year, an annual concession fee will become payable. With Arqiva having traded part of its spectrum holding in the band to Airwave back in 2008, the latter was noted as being a co-licensee.
According to the regulator, it believes there is likely to be excess demand for the spectrum in the future, and as such confirmed its intention to set an administered incentive pricing (AIP) fee, which sets the fee ‘by reference to the market value of the spectrum. As such, under Ofcom’s proposals it has suggested that the annual fee for the paired 2×2MHz block (412MHz-414MHz/422MHz-424MHz) be set at GBP1.584 million (USD2.2 million) per year.