NERA Economic Consulting again served as knowledge partner for Forum Europe's European Spectrum Management Conference, held in Brussels on 17-18 June 2014. In the role as knowledge partner, NERA advised on the agenda for the event and helped to identify expert speakers on spectrum management issues.

On the first day of the conference, NERA Senior Consultant Dr. Soren Tang Sorensen chaired and moderated a session on spectrum awards entitled "Selecting the Auction Mechanism -- Combinatorial Auctions vs. Simultaneous Multiple-Round Auctions." The recent wave of spectrum awards has seen significant innovation in auction design. While most countries used either simultaneous multiple-round auctions (SMRAs) or simple sealed bids for the award of 3G spectrum, many regulators switched to combinatorial formats to sell LTE and refarmed 2G bands. The most popular new format, the combinatorial clock auction (CCA), used in eight European countries, has proved controversial: proponents argue that it promotes straightforward bidding and efficient outcomes, whereas critics have suggested it encourages overbidding, and is often associated with unpredictable outcomes in terms of both prices and spectrum allocations across operators. This session examined the advantages and disadvantages of the CCA and SMRA formats from a European perspective, and considered the scope for possible coordination of auction design.

Learn more about The 9th Annual European Spectrum Management Conference.