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As bidding topped £680m, the Czech regulator pulled the plug on the 4G auction, saying that to continue would risk pushing cripplingly high prices onto the winner’s customers as well as delaying deployments – both to the detriment of the country’s citizens.

The Czech Republic was hoping for a fast deployment, and the regulator had placed a reserve of 7.4bn Czech Koruna (£250m) on the bands being auctioned off, but with four operators determined to divide the bands into three bundles, the bidding got out of hand and the regulator decided to pull the plug rather than taking the money.

“Such excessive prices of the auctioned frequencies would have to negatively translate into excessive charges for fast mobile internet,” says the surprisingly sensible regulator in a statement quoted by Bloomberg. “We therefore consider it necessary to step in and prevent future negative consequences for the customers.”