Austrian regulator the Telekom-Control Commission (TKK) will begin auctioning the country’s 800MHz, 900MHz and 1800MHz spectrum bands in September 2013. A total of 28 frequency blocks of 2x5MHz will be on offer.

A committee of senior ministers in India, known as the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), has proposed a lower reserve price for the country’s 2G spectrum ahead of its auction, due to be held later this year. The reserve price for spectrum had been set by the Telecoms Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) at Rs 36.22bn ($687m) for every MHz of nationwide spectrum in the 1800MHz band, which translates to Rs180bn for a pan-India licence. The price is almost ten times the reserve price that was set in 2008 for the initial auction.

India’s Department of Telecom (DoT) has approved plans to release more 1800MHz spectrum in each of the country’s circles ahead of the 2G re-auction, set to be held after all licences were revoked by the Supreme Court amid allegations of corruption.

Australia’s telecoms regulator, The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), has issued draft guidelines as it prepares to allocate spectrum for its ‘digital dividend auction’. The regulator is selling spectrum licences for blocks in the 700 MHz and 2.5 GHz bands in the biggest spectrum sale to be held in the country in a decade.

Nordic operator group Telenor has said that it will do what it can to keep Indian subsidiary Uninor operating in the country. Last week, the Supreme Court of India cancelled 122 telecoms licences that were awarded in a 2008 spectrum sale, citing corruption in the sales process of the licences.

UK operator Everything Everywhere, the company formed by the merger of Orange and T-Mobile in the country, has revealed that talks are ongoing for plans to divest some of its 1800MHz spectrum ahead of Ofcom’s spectrum auction later this year.

UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has outlined new proposals to extend 4G coverage to at least 98 per cent of the population.

Portugal Telecom, Sonaecom and Vodafone Portugal have each won spectrum in Portugal’s LTE spectrum auction. Portugal Telecom and Sonaecom’s mobile phone units, TMN and Optimus, respectively, both announced that they had placed winning bids in three frequency bands. They each paid a total of €113 million for nine blocks; the minimum price set by the Portuguese telecommunications regulator, CMVM.

UK regulator Ofcom has announced that it will delay the 4G spectrum auction until the final quarter of 2012 at the earliest. Ofcom said that it received a number of “substantial and strongly argued responses” to its initial plans and will undertake a further round of consultation to address issues raised.