Next Wednesday, July 13, Telstra, NBN Co and vividwireless will battle each other for 2.3GHz spectrum covering vast swathes of rural and remote Australia, and home to some 700,000 people.

Unlike most other spectrum auctions, which have been undertaken online, this will be a good old-fashioned \'open outcry\' auction. It will be held in the ACMA\'s offices in Canberra, and spectators are welcome.

NBN Co needs the spectrum to complete the rollout of its planned TD-LTE network that will serve around four percent of the seven percent of premises that are beyond the reach of its fibre.

NBN Co last month awarded Ericsson a turnkey contract to build the 2.3GHz network. NBN Co already has spectrum for some of the area it plans to cover, it was acquired from Austar in early 2011 for $120m.

vividwirless, is bidding through BKAL Pty Ltd, a long established subsidiary of Unwired Australia, now a subsidiary of vividwireless, that held its original spectrum licences.

 vividwireless is using its existing 2.3GHz spectrum for mobile WiMAX networks in Perth and limited areas of east coast capital cities. It has flagged plans for a larger scale rollout on the east coast, and an upgrade to TD LTE, but has yet to secure (or at least to announce) funding for this project. Telstra has given no indication as to how it might use the spectrum.