KOWLOON (WiMAX Day). The Office of the Telecommunications Authority (“OFTA”) announced yesterday that it will accelerate the auction of 2.5 GHz spectrum to the fourth quarter of 2008, allowing for the introduction of WiMAX services to Hong Kong and its 426 square mile territory.

Previously OFTA had said that the 2.5 GHz frequency band would not be auctioned until 2009 or 2010. The 2.5 GHz auction now will be combined with an auction of 2.3 GHz spectrum for Broadband Wireless Access Services (BWA), which already had been planned for Q4 2008.

The impetus for accelerating the auction of 2.5 GHz spectrum is that the World Radio Conference admitted WiMAX into the IMT family of technologies last month. A spokesman at OFTA said “we decided it was time to end the debate and offer this spectrum for WiMAX.”

A press release issued yesterday by OFTA said: “WiMAX for BWA can coexist with other IMT-2000 standards in the frequency spectrum of 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz that have been identified by ITU for IMT.  The TA’s proposal of allocating both the 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz bands for BWA services is therefore in line with the decisions of the WRC-07 and the RA-07.”

OFTA said that up to 240 MHz of spectrum will be made available for the auction. OFTA believe that this spectrum, when auctioned in blocks, “should be sufficient to accommodate at least six licenses.” While the final frequency allocation must be coordinated with authorities in Guangdong, the neighboring province in mainland China, roughly 150 MHz will be provided for the 2.5 GHz band, and 90 MHz for the 2.3 GHz band. OFTA said that a maximum of 30 MHz will be issued for any one bidder.

The requirements for qualification in the tender bid, pricing and roll-out requirements have yet to be determined, and will be divulged later in 2008.

OFTA will auction the spectrum without technical or service restrictions. “In order to allow versatile and sustainable developments by the BWA licensee over the term of the licence, the TA decides that there will be no restriction on the applications and services for the BWA licences. Also, no particular standards or technologies will be prescribed for BWA deployment as far as it conforms to the widely recognized international standards. The frequency blocks for BWA will be assigned on a territory-wide basis.”

This point was clarified by Marion Lai, director-general of telecommunications at OFTA, at a press conference on Tuesday. She said the spectrum licenses will be “technology-neutral so winners of the auction are able to make their own decision to choose the BWA technology they like to deploy.”

As for the question of mobility connected to the licenses, a spokesman for OFTA said “The release of the 2.3 GHz band and the 2.5 GHz band will allow the introduction of BWA services, facilitating the development of Hong Kong into an advanced wireless city. The public will have wider choices of innovative services, including mobile broadband network services, so that they may have access to the internet and multimedia services at affordable price any time, any where and while on the move.”