Chile's 5G spectrum auction used package bidding and raised six times prior revenue

For decades Chile assigned spectrum through beauty contests, where firms won with technical proposals rather than prices. The process was opaque, hard to monitor, and effectively free: all previous spectrum assignments in Chilean history together raised only about USD 74 million.

Faced with the 5G rollout, the government redesigned the process with University of Chile researchers. In February 2021 SUBTEL ran a first-price package auction across the 700 MHz, AWS and 3.5 GHz bands, run sequentially so bidders could exploit complementarities, with spectrum caps ensuring that four incumbents and one entrant could compete.

The auction raised more than USD 453 million — over six times the sum of every previous contest in the country's history — while also requiring coverage that brought high-speed mobile Internet to 366 previously unserved localities and connected 199 hospitals, using revenue to buy social value.