Hong Kong’s Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA) published guidelines, including reserve prices and spectrum caps, for upcoming 5G auctions in three spectrum bands.

The 3.5GHz band sale will be held on 14 October, followed by the 4.9GHz and 3.3GHz band auctions, with the reserve price per MHz set at HKD4 million ($512,318), HKD3 million and HKD2 million respectively.

In a statement, the agency said “to avoid an unduly high concentration of spectrum being held in the hands of a single spectrum assignee” it will limit a bidder to 70MHz in the 3.5GHz band and 40MHz in each of the 3.3GHz and 4.9GHz bands.

The spectrum utilisation fees will be determined in the respective auctions, OFCA said. Applications are due on 12 and 13 September.

In March HKT, China Mobile Hong Kong and SmarTone each was assigned 400MHz of spectrum in the 26GHz and 28GHz bands.

The regulator announced in December 2018 it would assign 5G spectrum in the two bands for use across the territory by Q2 and auction 380MHz of spectrum in the 3.3GHz, 3.5GHz and 4.9GHz bands in mid-2019.