Vodafone Hutchison Australia may go stright to LTE1800

Vodafone Hutchison Australia may skip digital dividend auction. Company instead focus on rolling up LTE 1800 network. It is not decided yet, but it is possible.

"We have to weigh that against the current spectrum position we have, which is actually quite rich," Morrow said. "If you look at the depth of what we have at the 1800MHz level, we're in a far better position than any of the other two carriers and there is plenty of spectrum to use for LTE."
Although an LTE network in 700MHz spectrum will mean fewer base stations, Morrow said the company was prepared to install a few more base stations for 1800MHz, as it may ultimately end up being cheaper than forking out his estimate AU$900 million for the 700MHz spectrum.

New CEO Bill Morrow predicts the company will be able to offer LTE download speeds up to 150 Mbps.

"1800[MHz] for LTE is probably the most-deployed spectrum around the planet right now; that is going to have the best economies of scale," he said.

\zdnet.com

There is downward trend in the value of this spectrum in Western Europe discovered .

We can take in account 25 LTE 1800 commercial networks worldwide as well.

Seems we really got a trend? Still I guess that spectrum <1 GHz is very good for rural and remote LTE solutions, so the best for the operator is combined LTE system with the smart use of two or more frequency bands.