Ten megahertz of mobile spectrum from US technology company Qualcomm was recently bought by Optus, which it aims at using to deal with the vigorous growth in data services.

Apart from doubling the amount of airspace the Singapore-owned telecom major will have in the mobile-friendly 2100MHz band, the spectrum will also provide it further chances to conclude with Telstra, the company with the largest market share.

Andrew Buay, the company's managing director of products and delivery explained, "'The purchase is illustrative of how Optus is building further capacity in its mobile network to meet the explosive growth in demand for data services."

The deal will have to be approved by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Foreign Investment Review Board.

Optus expressed its confidence for winning the approval, which will occur most probably by March end.

With the purchase, Optus' mobile networks will be able to ease its limitations; however it will still require doing more, said a market analyst on the condition of anonymity.

The speculations suggest that the company has paid Qualcomm subsidiary 3G Investments less than $100 million for the spectrum space, which expires in 2017. However, the figure was not confirmed by the company. Back in
2001, during a spectrum auction, it was first bought by Qualcomm for $159 million, when the company was mulling to unveil a mobile service.

In the same auction, a sum of $206 million was paid by Optus for its 10MHz of spectrum space.

All available 2100MHz spectrum on the secondary trading market that supports the expansion of mobile broadband services, was exhausted due the purchase, specified Optus.

The Southern Cross Equities figures suggest that while Telstra holds 42% in mobile market share, Optus holds 33%.