The next big thing in the mobile phone arena is the expansion of LTE and according to an article over on intomobile Germany has now begun its auctions of LTE mobile spectrum and it is expected that Germany’s Telefonica, T-Mobile, Vodafone and KPN will all compete.

Apparently according to the source article on mobile business briefing, this is the first LTE auction in Europe and will more than likely set a benchmark for further auctions across the continent.

The president of German telecoms regulator, Bundesnetzagentur, Matthias Kurth has said, “Many European countries will follow our auction closely.”

The auction of spectrum will be available in 4 bands 800MHz, 1.8GHz, 2GHz, and 2.6GHz while the 800MHz and 2.6GHz are best suited for LTE while the rest will probably be used for expansion of existing 2G and 3G networks.

4G spectrum will no doubt bring less revenue that 3G auctions of 10 years ago that raised about €50 billion and this time round the minimum bids are set at €1.5 million for a 5MHz block as compared to €25.37 million in the 3G auctions.