AUCKLAND (WiMAX Day). The Communications Minister in New Zealand, David Cunliffe, announced last week that the auction of 2.3 GHz spectrum scheduled for this month has been delayed as the government must consider still more proposals concerning the spectrum.

“The issues are complex and we are carefully considering submissions received from stakeholders,” Cunliffe said. It was in April that the government requested proposals for the spectrum auction, and now, according to an official press release, the Minister said that a further announcement should be made by the end of May.

Currently the government is considering two proposals that were made by the Communications Ministry in April. The first proposal is that the 2.3 GHz band would be split into three lots with a maximum of 30 Mhz each.

This plan also called for a small lot of spectrum, a “managed park” that would be made available for “geographically limited wireless-broadband proposals that may involve local government,” the New Zealand Herald reported last week.

Splitting controversy
The delayed auction comes after months of controversy over the spectrum. Several companies such as Woosh Wireless, NZ Telecom and Sky TV already own 2.3 GHz spectrum licenses that were allocated in 1990 and are set to expire in 2010. The government decided that it would re-allocate that spectrum when the licenses expire, however the current license holders claim that they have the right to renew the spectrum automatically.

Woosh has already invested millions of dollars in building its network, and it also acquired management rights over the spectrum owned by Sky TV. The company contends that if it does not have automatic renewal rights to the spectrum, it may be shut out of bidding on the spectrum when put up for auction.

Excluding the incumbents
Another operator building a WiMAX network in New Zealand is CallPlus, which is using 3.5 GHz spectrum in the Auckland area, for which it acquired a license last year. CallPlus has lobbied the government to exclude the large telco operators from bidding on the 2.3 GHz spectrum.

“There is only enough spectrum to allow two or, at the most, three bidders to gain access to sufficient spectrum to deploy nationwide networks,” CallPlus CEO Martin Wylie was quoted last month in the New Zealand Herald. “Telecom and Vodafone, with their deep pockets to bid, can ensure emerging competitors do not get their hands on spectrum that could be used to effectively compete with them.”