The telecoms regulator has announced plans to auction off radio spectrum that can be used for the delivery of wireless broadband data services.

ComReg published details yesterday of the competition for three national licences to provide "wideband digital mobile data services".

In a departure from its normal practice, the licences will each be auctioned off to the highest bidder if there is more than one applicant. A reserve price of €100,000 will apply.

It is understood ComReg has had up to seven expressions of interest from potential bidders.

Explaining the change of policy, ComReg chairwoman Isolde Goggin said: "ComReg recognises the value and importance of spectrum as one of Ireland's economic resources. We are fully committed to promoting efficient use of spectrum and we believe this is the best way of achieving that objective."

The successful bidders will be awarded a 10-year licence, which will be reviewed after three years.

The review is intended to prevent spectrum hoarding, whereby a large player could block other entrants to the market by purchasing a licence but not rolling out services.

It is likely the successful bidders would use the bandwidth to target vertical applications such as vehicle tracking, but it may also be suitable to deliver consumer content to mobile devices.

The bandwidth is not optimised for voice traffic, but a successful licence holder could use it to offer a limited mobile telephone service.

Speaking at the International Wireless Conference in Dublin yesterday, ComReg director of market framework, David Gunning, said regulators that could no longer dictate what technologies should be used in particular spectrum bands.