Simulating digital dividend autions: Service neutrality versus dedicated licences

Abstract: 

The award of the digital dividend can consolidate auctions as the preferred mechanism for spectrum allocation. Knowing in advance an estimate of what the results of an auction with these characteristics could be would be unquestionably useful for those in charge of designing the process, even if at the end another method such as a beauty contest is chosen. This article provides a simulation of a digital dividend auction in a major-type European country. In one of the scenarios, the spectrum is not pre-allocated to any service in particular (service neutrality) while in the remaining four, blocks of spectrum are pre-allocated to DTT, mobile multimedia and mobile broadband communications. The results of the simulations reveal that the service neutrality scenario maximizes revenues for the seller and that, in general, DTT operators would seem to have fewer opportunities as the spectrum packaging is less protective for them.


Publication type: 
JRC-SCI Magazine
Published in: 
Telematics and Informatics Vol. 29  Issue 1, p.p. 11-25
ISBN/ISSN: 
0736-5853
Publication date: 
May 2012
Other Authors: 
José Luis Gómez-Barroso, Asunción Mochón, Yago Sáez