The three highest bidders are Australia’s leading mobile providers Vodafone, Cable & Wireless Optus and Telstra.
The three companies have made total bids of AU$252.8 million, AU$241.1 billion and AU$213.3 million respectively.
These operators will compete for the two liceenses on offer. In the twelfth round of the auction Optus offered a supplementary AU$8.3 million to outbid CKW Wireless for a licence offering coverage of Australia’s eight major cities.
Whampoa’s mobile arm, Hutchison Telecommunications, also increased its bid for a metropolitan licence covering Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide to AU$203.5 million, while Qualcomm-owned 3G Investments remained with its original bid of AU$159 million.
