back to article Vodafone splashes €2 BEEELLLION to kick German TV sideways

Germany's electricity, gas, telecoms, post and railway regulator, the Bundesnetzagentur, has raised €5.08bn in its latest spectrum auction - including flogging the 700MHz frequencies currently in use by TV channels. The biggest purchaser was Vodafone, which splurged €2.1bn, with the auction going through 181 rounds and …

  1. bill 36
    Headmaster

    just to finish the headline off properly

    Achtung, die Engländer haben mein Tellyboxsignalfrequenzen

    Gekauft

    1. smartypants

      Re: just to finish the headline off properly

      Isn't the proper ending 'gebought'?

      This is after all genglish. (or engman)

  2. Buzzword

    Making maximum money

    Haven't the governments shot themselves in the foot here? If they restricted the amount of bandwidth for sale (leasehold), they would limit the supply and thus push up prices. As it stands they're flooding the market with 4G frequencies. No wonder they aren't reaching the lofty heights of the 2000-era auctions.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Making maximum money

        the government != we

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Groan, another beeeeellllllioooooon headline. FFS Reg Hacks sort your sticking keyboards out.

    1. Anonymous Blowhard

      It makes me beeellllioooous...

  4. Xpositor

    Geographic "bleed"

    Perhaps not so much of an issue for the UK, being an island, but when flogging off spectrum like this, how does the government / operators ensure there is no bleed beyond the borders of the country where the spectrum has been sold - or is it simply a case of don't expect a signal near a border?

    1. gravityalwayswins

      Re: Geographic "bleed"

      The spectrum won't be usable for a few more years near the border. This explains why this part of the spectrum was not the most desirable.

      The public outcry for making millions of DVB-T receivers useless (including the ones bought today) is yet to come. I'm not sure they will be able to use the spectrum so soon.

      1. jonfr

        Re: Geographic "bleed"

        How the spectrum is used close to a other country is based on the border agreement. What they normally do is to limit the usage to 1800Mhz / 2600Mhz so it doesn't leak too far into nearby country. As it stands Germany is moving to DVB-T2 from mid-2016 and finishing the move in 2019.

        More details on that can be found here.

        www.ndr.de/der_ndr/technik/FAQ-DVB-T2,faqdvbtzwei100.html

        The change on the 700Mhz block from TV to LTE service is going to take place from November 2015 (world wide I think). Once some meeting at ITU is finished.

  5. graeme leggett Silver badge

    Accompanying image

    Not a bit inflammatory? Can't beat a pic of a Spitfire.

    Mind you, listening to the radio this morning I heard that the Luftwaffe were going to escort HM-the-Queen on her visit today.

    A contrast to 70 years ago when they dropped a bomb on her home.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Accompanying image

      I think it's a Hurricane though.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Accompanying image

        Nope, it's a late model Spit. And I'll wager it's the BBMF's mark 16.

      2. James O'Shea

        Re: Accompanying image

        "I think it's a Hurricane though."

        Nah. That's a Spitfire, almost certainly one with a Griffon engine instead of a Merlin. The canopy and the four- or five-blade prop say late-marque Spit or perhaps a Spiteful or a Seafang. Probably a a later Spit, though, very few Spitefuls or Seafangs were built and I don't think that any survive. It's definitely not a Hurri. No standard production Hurri had a canopy like that one, and I'm pretty sure that no Hurri had a four-blade prop, either.

  6. Christian Berger

    DVB-T is essentially dead in Germany anyhow

    You only get a hand full of channels, not even all major public ones. Since you don't get any channels people don't set up their DVB-T equipment... which means that nobody will provide more channels.

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: DVB-T is essentially dead in Germany anyhow

      All reports of the demise of DVB-T in Germany are exaggerated. The number of channels certainly doesn't compare well to the UK, and satellite is more entrenched, but there are still a sizeable number of households for whom DVB-T is the only option. This is one of the reasons why RTL isn't abandoning ship as early as previously announced.

      Mind you, given the generally awful quality of programming, the shift to online only is going pretty fast.

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