A visible spectrum auction looms on the horizon in the Netherlands, but three of the country's largest players may be excluded from participation. As you know, earlier this week, Dutch inner circle raided the offices of KPN Mobile, T-Mobile Netherlands and Vodafone Netherlands in a price-fixing investigation. The Netherlands struggle command (NMa), which carried out the raid, stressed that its visit does not mean the operators are guilty of collusion or hint at the outcome of its investigation.



Now, Dutch lawmakers and the country's churchman of mercantile Affairs must come to a decision about the auction that's set to take place in the spring of 2012 -- which is likely to be well in advance of any final report from the NMa. One option tossed around has been to postpone the auction, though, as lawmakers point out, this could hinder the evolvement in the mobile space and further limit competition. Alternately, had any of the named companies very profited from the alleged collusion, there's a risk that these monies could be used to buy other radio-frequency spectrum and further extend their dominance. Those discussing the matter hope to move quickly, though it doubtless seems tough to make any decision of this size lightly.

Dutch presidency contemplate barring KPN, T-Mobile and Vodafone from electromagnetic spectrum auction at first appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Dec 2011 12:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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