Chile's three largest mobile operators all picked up LTE-suitable spectrum yesterday in auctions that netted the government more than CLP6 billion (US$12 million).

Business News Americas reports that the three blocks of 20MHz spectrum on offer went to market-leader Entel (which spent US$8.9 million), America Movil’s Claro (US$2.9 million) and Telefonica’s Movistar (US$500,000).

Chile’s two smaller networks – VTR and Nextel – are not thought to have presented bids, having only recently launched.

Under the terms of the licences, the winning bidders will have 12 months to start roll-out of their new networks using the spectrum, and must connect an additional 543 “isolated communities” within the two years.

Jorge Atton, head of Chilean regulator Subtel, said the new spectrum will allow the operators to offer speeds of up to 5 Mb/s, around ten times faster than what they can currently offer.

According to the latest Wireless Intelligence data, Entel leads the Chilean mobile market with an estimated 10.1 million connections in Q2, followed by Movistar (9.6 million) and Claro (5.7 million).