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Mystery company wins Belgian 4G licence
30 November 2011
A mystery company, BUCD, apparently with Asian backing, has won one of four 15-year licences in Belgium’s 4G auction after offering €22.5m
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Belgium
LTE
4G
KPN
Belgacom
France Telecom
Orange
auction
BUCD
Three known operators — Belgacom, KPN and France Telecom’s Mobistar — and one unknown, BUCD, have won licences in Belgium’s 4G spectrum auction. They are paying €77.8 million between them. A fifth contender, Craig Wireless, failed to buy any bandwidth.
BUCD appears unknown even in Belgium. The local version of ZDNet reports that it was headed by two executives, Filip Buerms and Jan Roex, working for unnamed Asian backers. ZDNet says that Buerms and Roex sold their shares a few days ago.
Buerms’s LinkedIn entry describes him as managing partner at BUCD and formerly VP of global sales and distribution at Option, a company based in Leuven that describes itself as “a global leader in wireless technology, focused on the design, development and manufacture of innovative solutions that provide businesses and consumers with high-quality wireless broadband access to the internet, anywhere, anytime”. He was also a former executive with the British Standards Institution, according to LinkedIn. The same site says that Roex is business development manager at Option.
The new licences will run for a period of 15 years from July 1 2012. Belgacom and Mobistar — the local brand of France Telecom Orange — will each pay about €20 million for 2x20 megahertz of spectrum. KPN, which operates as Base in Belgium, will pay €15 million for 2x15 megahertz. All three blocks are FDD spectrum. BUCD’s licence will be for 45 megahertz of TDD spectrum. All the spectrum on sale was in the 2.5 to 2.7 gigahertz band. GTB
Further reading from Global Telecoms Business:
Telenet gets 3G licence in Belgium 28 Jun 2011
Belgium to auction fourth 3G licence 29 Dec 2010
Orange's Belgian unit varies Paris rule 20 May 2010
Belgium to sell fourth 3G and LTE licences 09 Mar 2010