ZURICH (Reuters) - The Swiss government raised 380 million Swiss francs (£292.9 million) from auctioning frequencies for the fifth-generation mobile frequency spectrum, it said on Friday.
Swisscom, Sunrise Communications and privately owned Salt each received part of the spectrum after newcomer Dense Air dropped out of the bidding.
Telecoms operators are keen to get 5G spectrum for an edge in new digital services such as powering the Internet of Things, industrial automation and autonomous vehicles.
London-based Dense Air, part of Airspan Group, acts as a host for 4G and 5G mobile phone networks.
The bidding, which covered blocks of frequencies within the 700 MHz, 1400 MHz, 2.6 GHz and 3.5 GHz ranges, had been expected to raise at least 220 million Swiss francs.
Swisscom offered 195.5 million francs; Salt 94.5 million francs and Sunrise 89.2 million francs for their blocks of the frequencies.
The frequencies will be assigned for 15 years, with money raised going towards the Swiss treasure as extraordinary revenue.
Salt said it was "extremely satisfied" with the outcome of the caution, which it said would help improve its services to customers in Switzerland.
Swisscom said it considered the price to be a long-term investment in the future of the mobile market. "The bid of 196 million francs is viewed as exceptional and was not included in the capital investments of around 2.3 billion francs projected for 2019," it said.
($1 = 1.0019 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by John Revill; Editing by Michael Shields)
