Austria’s telecoms regulator has delayed a planned 800MHz, 900MHz and 1800MHz spectrum issue, due to planned consolidation in the market involving three of the four existing operators.

3 Austria is in the process of acquiring Orange Austria, which are respectively the fourth and third biggest operators in the country. However, this will be followed by the sale of assets, including the Yesss discount mobile business and some spectrum, to market leader Telekom Austria.

The watchdog said it made its decision to delay the issue following an assessment of the possible effects on competition, the potential risks of sticking to the original tender, and the impact of delays to the introduction of LTE services as a result. It argued that delays to an LTE rollout proved less of a concern in its assessment than the disadvantages of a reduction in competition.

It was noted that one of the main goals of the spectrum auction is “ensuring sustainable competition,” and the results of the auction would be impacted by a subsequent combination of operators in the market. For example, a potential new-entrant could lose-out on spectrum which was instead assigned to an operator set to merge with another.

A new timetable for the issue has not been suggested, due to it being “impossible to predict” how long the merger process will take. It said it holds open the option to start the process at any time.

It was reported last month that the Austrian competition authorities were keeping a close eye on the deal, with the suggestion that its main concern was the strengthening of Telekom Austria by the Yesss transaction. It was mooted that this could prove a deal-breaker for 3.