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The Scandinavian regulators seem to have the knack of slicing through politics and bureaucracy when it comes to spectrum allocation, in the interests of rapid deployment of new services. So while countries like the UK continue to debate the refarming of 900MHz GSM bands and the terms for auctioning the 2.6GHz mobile broadband licenses, Sweden has gone ahead and done both, hard on the heels of Norway.

The Swedish telecoms regulator, the PTS, has approved the deployment of mobile broadband services - most likely based on 3G - in the 900MHz band used for GSM. The country's four 2G cellcos - Tele2, Swefour, Telenor and TeliaSonera - will now be able to apply to run the new applications in their 900MHz spectrum, while at the same time continuing with GSM services. And 3G-only carrier Hutchison 3 will be allocated a new 900MHz license. The existing GSM franchises expire in 2010 but, subject to successful applications by the carriers, will be renewed.

Although this does not open up the renewals process to new entrants, it should ensure far faster and more commercially viable roll-out of 3G (or even, in theory, 4G) to rural areas that are better served by low frequency spectrum and the large cells this supports. The decisions come almost a year after Sweden auctioned its 2.6GHz spectrum - along with Norway, the first western European nation to do so.

By contrast, the UK, which was supposed to be the first to auction 2.6GHz, has suffered a series of delays, because of challenges from operators led by T-Mobile. The carrier argues that potential bidders cannot accurately value the 2.6GHz licenses until they know the rules attached to refarming their GSM bands, and whether the UK regulator, Ofcom, will agree to redistribute 2G spectrum among its four holders, T-Mobile, Orange, O2 and Vodafone (3 has no GSM, and unlike in Sweden, will not be included in any redistribution, although it is likely to extend its network sharing agreements with T-Mobile. (

All the Swedish cellcos except Swefour purchased 2.6GHz licenses, as did Intel, which acquired the license for 50MHz of spectrum set aside for TDD usage, for €17.1m. Norway carried out its own 2.6GHz auction in late 2007, with the winners being Telenor, Arctic Wireless, Craig Wireless Systems, Hafslund Telekom and NetCom/Telenor.

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