Austria surpassed expectations in a spectrum auction which raised more than €2 billion from the country’s three incumbent operators.

Telekom Austria led with total bids of €1.03 billion for 14 spectrum blocks, followed by T-Mobile which acquired nine blocks for €654 million and Hutchison, the successful bidder for five blocks at €330 million. Total bids came to €2.014 billion.

The bids were far beyond initial expectations. For instance, the country’s regulator was seeking total proceeds of €526 million, and Reuters said analysts were only expecting Telekom Austria, the country’s largest operator, to bid in the range of €300 million to €400 million.

The 28 frequency blocks on offer each consisted of 2 x 5 MHz. The blocks were split between three frequencies; six in the 800 MHz band, seven in 900 MHz and 15 in the 1.8 GHz band.

The country’s three existing operators were the only bidders for the frequencies on offer.

The regulator said the main aim of the auction was to ensure spectrum was efficiently utilised, either by refarming and redistributing existing GSM frequencies in the 900 MHz band or by technology-neutral use of all three bands for GSM, 3G and 4G.