Questions raised as to whether iBursts spectrum has been sold

The possible sale of the wireless spectrum owned by Personal Broadband Australia/iBurst following the failure of the ICT service company Commander is causing mounting speculation from the telecommunications industry.

The recent decision made in mid-October to close down the iBurst wireless broadband network even though there were potential bidders for the whole asset, like the wireless telco BigAir, could be explained if it is true that the sale has taken place.

A portion of the iBurst business had been sold off, according to a spokesperson for McGrathNicol, the Commander receivers, but he declined to say who had bought it or which part had been sold.
The company had definitely been split up into smaller segments to be sold, said the spokesperson, and the company’s sites and equipment were still available for sale. The spectrum allocation was one of the few remaining parts of the company left.

Telstra, the largest telco in Australia appeared to be one of the bidders for the spectrum according the sources in the industry although a spokesperson for the telco refused to offer any comment on this.

Managing director of analyst firm Telsyte, Warren Chaisatien advised that it would be unlikely that Telstra would be using the spectrum even if they had bought it. He said “It would be switching off the competitor because the spectrum band is effective for wireless broadband and not for 3G.”

He also added that at its investor day recently Telstra had made it clear that it wasn’t interested in rival technologies like iBurst and would be using its resources for mobile broadband.

Jason Ashton, the CEO of BigAir advised that he had no idea which party had bought the assets of the company adding “We haven’t been advised formally of anything.” He went on to say that bidding for the equipment and site asset would not be something that BigAir would have any interest in because it would be “totally unusable without the spectrum licence”.