First auction

36. During the months preceeding the coming into force of the Radiocommunications Act 1989, the Ministry of Commerce had been evaluating public submissions in regard to UHF television, and engineering auction lots accordingly. This enabled the first call for bids to tender for spectrum licences to be released just 3 days following the passage of the legislation⁴¹. Sky Network Television, a pay-TV company, had constructed a transmission network and were anxious for the tender to commence as soon as possible. In keeping with the recommendations of NERA, 7 lots were configured as nationwide networks⁴² while the balance of the lots were individual licences. Sky won four of the nationwide network lots. Not all UHF television spectrum was offered for auction however. A block of frequencies was retained to meet future requirements for non-commercial broadcasting and the promotion of Maori language and culture.
37. By the time the results of the first auction were announced⁴³, planning was already well advanced for two further auctions. The first of these was, primarily, the auction of management rights for cellular services. Telecom already had incumbency rights to one of the two AMPS cellular bands and, after various legal actions following the auction, was allowed to uplift the management rights to the other. BellSouth and Telstra each acquired the management rights over a GSM⁴⁴ cellular band in the same auction. Full details of the various auctions conducted by the Ministry over the decade 1989 - 1999 are available from this website.

Footnotes

⁴¹ Friday, 22 December 1989

⁴² Each lot was a package of some 30 licences

⁴³ A significant number of licences were won by Sky Network television Ltd who proposed providing a new pay-tv service.

⁴⁴ At the time of the auction an analogue technology, known as TACS, was still the primary application overseas however this technology was never implemented in New Zealand. BellSouth established service with the new digital GSM technology.