IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/telpol/v47y2023i7s0308596123000915.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The 5G spectrum auction in Chile

Author

Listed:
  • Escobar, Juan
  • Epstein, Rafael
  • Correa, Jose
  • Gidi, Pamela
  • Markovits, Jozsef
  • Epstein, Natalie
  • Montenegro, Yerko
  • Turkieltaub, Abner

Abstract

In 2021, the Chilean government implemented a first-price package auction to allocate electromagnetic spectrum for 5G mobile services. The auction was run sequentially for different spectrum bands, allowing firms to exploit band complementarities. It was a combinatorial auction, so firms could bid for any combination of blocks within a band. It contemplated spectrum caps – upper limits on the spectrum for each firm – to ensure competitiveness. The beauty contests used in previous processes became obsolete, as there was a need to promote competitiveness and transparency in the telecommunication sector. Four incumbents and one potential entrant participated in the auction. The auction raised more than USD $450 million, which was six times more than the sum of the revenues of all previous contests in the country. We discuss this experience and show how different aspects of the context justified our design choices.

Suggested Citation

  • Escobar, Juan & Epstein, Rafael & Correa, Jose & Gidi, Pamela & Markovits, Jozsef & Epstein, Natalie & Montenegro, Yerko & Turkieltaub, Abner, 2023. "The 5G spectrum auction in Chile," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(7).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:telpol:v:47:y:2023:i:7:s0308596123000915
    DOI: 10.1016/j.telpol.2023.102580
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308596123000915
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.telpol.2023.102580?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter Cramton, 2013. "Spectrum Auction Design," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 42(2), pages 161-190, March.
    2. B. Douglas Bernheim & Michael D. Whinston, 1986. "Menu Auctions, Resource Allocation, and Economic Influence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 101(1), pages 1-31.
    3. Peter Cramton & Evan Kwerel & Gregory Rosston & Andrzej Skrzypacz, 2011. "Using Spectrum Auctions to Enhance Competition in Wireless Services," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(S4), pages 167-188.
    4. Philippe Jehiel & Benny Moldovanu, 2003. "An economic perspective on auctions [‘An efficient as cending-bid auction for multiple objects’]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 18(36), pages 269-308.
    5. Cave, Martin & Nicholls, Rob, 2017. "The use of spectrum auctions to attain multiple objectives: Policy implications," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(5), pages 367-378.
    6. Milgrom,Paul, 2004. "Putting Auction Theory to Work," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521536721, October.
    7. Kuś, Agnieszka, 2020. "Polish experience from first-ever spectrum auction," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(7).
    8. Andrea Prat & Tommaso M. Valletti, 2001. "Spectrum Auctious Versus Beauty Contests: Costs and Benefits," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, vol. 91(4), pages 65-114, April-May.
    9. Milgrom, Paul R. & Weyl, E. Glen & Zhang, Anthony Lee, 2017. "Redesigning Spectrum Licenses to Encourage Innovation and Investment," Research Papers repec:ecl:stabus:3587, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    10. Cave, Martin, 2018. "How disruptive is 5G?," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(8), pages 653-658.
    11. Jonathan Levin & Andrzej Skrzypacz, 2016. "Properties of the Combinatorial Clock Auction," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(9), pages 2528-2551, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Committee, Nobel Prize, 2020. "Improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats," Nobel Prize in Economics documents 2020-2, Nobel Prize Committee.
    2. Kuś, Agnieszka & Massaro, Maria, 2022. "Analysing the C-Band spectrum auctions for 5G in Europe: Achieving efficiency and fair decisions in radio spectrum management," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(4).
    3. Kasberger, Bernhard, 2023. "When can auctions maximize post-auction welfare?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    4. Choi, Yong-Jae, 2022. "Spectrum auctions in a thin market: The Korean case," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(8).
    5. Rey, Patrick & Salant, David, 2017. "Allocating essential inputs," TSE Working Papers 17-820, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Jun 2019.
    6. Kazumori, Eiichiro & Belch, Yaakov, 2019. "t-Tree: The Tokyo toolbox for large-scale combinatorial auction experiments," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(C).
    7. Philippe Jehiel & Laurent Lamy, 2020. "On the Benefits of Set-Asides," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(4), pages 1655-1696.
    8. Maarten Janssen & Vladimir Karamychev, 2013. "Gaming in Combinatorial Clock Auctions," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 13-027/VII, Tinbergen Institute, revised 16 Dec 2013.
    9. Scott Duke Kominers & Alexander Teytelboym & Vincent P Crawford, 2017. "An invitation to market design," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 33(4), pages 541-571.
    10. Sridhar, V. & Prasad, Rohit, 2021. "Analysis of spectrum pricing for commercial mobile services: A cross country study," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(9).
    11. Cherbonnier, Frédéric & Salant, David & Van Der Straeten, Karine, 2021. "Getting auctions for transportation capacity to roll," TSE Working Papers 21-1254, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    12. Daglish, Toby & Sağlam, Yiğit & Ho, Phuong, 2017. "Auctioning the Digital Dividend: A model for spectrum auctions," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 63-98.
    13. Janssen, Maarten & Karamychev, Vladimir, 2017. "Raising rivals’ cost in multi-unit auctions," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 473-490.
    14. Goetzendorff, Andor & Bichler, Martin & Goeree, Jacob K., 2018. "Synergistic valuations and efficiency in spectrum auctions," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 91-105.
    15. Nicholas C. Bedard & Jacob K. Goeree & Philippos Louis & Jingjing Zhang, 2024. "Sealed-bid versus ascending spectrum auctions," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 27(2), pages 299-324, April.
    16. Ignacio Palacios-Huerta & David C. Parkes & Richard Steinberg, 2024. "Combinatorial Auctions in Practice," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 62(2), pages 517-553, June.
    17. Mochon, Asuncion & Saez, Yago, 2017. "A review of radio spectrum combinatorial clock auctions," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(5), pages 303-324.
    18. A. Talman & Zaifu Yang, 2015. "An efficient multi-item dynamic auction with budget constrained bidders," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 44(3), pages 769-784, August.
    19. Axel Ockenfels & David Reiley & Abdolkarim Sadrieh, 2006. "Online Auctions," NBER Working Papers 12785, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Markus Groth, 2009. "The transferability and performance of payment-by-results biodiversity conservation procurement auctions: empirical evidence from northernmost Germany," Working Paper Series in Economics 119, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Spectrum auctions; 5G;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:telpol:v:47:y:2023:i:7:s0308596123000915. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30471/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.