ROME (WiMAX Day). The Ministry of Communications in Italy announced that it completed the first stage of the auction for 3.5 GHz WiMAX spectrum. Since January 30, the Ministry has open all the envelopes containing bids for the radio frequencies.

Yesterday the Ministry said that it received 179 valid bids amounting to EUR 49.8 million.

The leading bids were made by companies such as the incumbent Telecom Italia, GSM operator WIND  Telecomunicazioni spa, broadband operator Fastweb, Toto Costruzioni Generali spa, and MGM Productions srl.

Some of the largest bids for a single license included EUR 3.51 million for the region of Emilia Romagna and EUR 2.52 million for Fruili-Venezia Giulia.

There will be a total of 65 licenses made available in three categories, each with a total frequency of 2×21 Mhz. One license will be available for each of two main categories, Block A and Block B, in seven specific geographic regions “marco-regions” of Italy.

A third set of licenses, Block C, are offered on a regional basis and are available only to those companies that “do not have direct rights of use of spectral resources for the provision of mobile communications services for third-generation (UMTS).”

The Ministry was happy to note that bids were received for licenses in all the regions of Italy, with the participation of many small operators in the C category regions. The lowest bid in this category was EUR 80,000 for a license in the region of Molise, in the south east of Italy with a population of some 300,000.

The next step of the auction begins on February 13, where the finalists in each category will have to compete against each other to improve on their offers and to gain one of the licenses available for each category. For each category, there are on average five final bidders that will move to this next phase called the Raise, “la fase dei rilanci,” where the final highest bid amongst them walks await with a license.

According to the Ministry, this second phase is not expected to last for more than a few days.