The reserve price for each licence will range from £100,000 in Northern Ireland to £4 million per licence in London. There are also "use it or lose it" provisions in the licences with the aims of ensuring that services are rolled out quickly, promoting competition and preventing spectrum hoarding.
Ms Hewitt said:
"Broadband Fixed Wireless Access will deliver fast, always-on access to these services using the airwaves, rather than down a telephone line or cable. UK businesses and the economy more generally, will benefit from this new competition, which I expect will result in a faster roll out of innovative services and lower prices.
"With three licences for each English region and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and nine bidders participating, I look forward to a competitive auction."
The nine eligible bidders are: EIRCOM NI Ltd (formerly Atlas Communications (UK) Ltd); Broadnet UK Ltd; Energis Local Access Ltd; Faultbasic Ltd; FirstMark Communications (UK) Ltd; Formus Communications UK Ltd; Norweb Telecom Ltd; Unica BFWA Ltd (formerly Templeco 489 Ltd); and Winstar Communications Ltd.
According to the government’s statement, Orange Personal Communications Services Ltd and Priority Wireless (UK) Ltd have withdrawn from the auction and Chorus Communication Ltd were excluded from the auction following a breach of the auction activity rules.
The progress of the auction will be published round by round on the spectrum auctions web site
