German regulator Bundesnetzagentur has laid out its plans to sell off 4G-suitable 700 MHz spectrum as part of a larger auction later this year, which will also see licences in the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz made available. The federal agency expects the…
German regulator Bundesnetzagentur has laid out its plans to sell off 4G-suitable 700 MHz spectrum as part of a larger auction later this year, which will also see licences in the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz made available.
The federal agency expects the tender to take place in either May or June, although the winning operators will not be able to start utilising their licences before next year at the earliest.
The current rights holders to the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz have ownership of those frequencies until the end of 2016, while the 700 MHz spectrum is currently used for terrestrial television and will not be able to be repurposed until 2017.
Operators have until 6 March to submit applications to bid for 700 MHz airwaves.
Bundesnetzagentur is looking for operators to provide mobile broadband coverage at 10 megabits per second to 98% of German households, and full coverage along major railways and motorways.
Last October, the regulator indicated it could use the sale to enhance competition in the wake of the merger of Telefonica’s O2 Deutschland and E-Plus, but did not go into detail.
Bundesnetzagentur had previously expressed concerns about the tie-up – reviewed and approved by the European Commission – saying that it caused an unbalanced distribution of frequencies among operators.
The agency noted that O2 and E-Plus would jointly control nearly 64% of all available spectrum in the 1,800 MHz spectrum, compared to less than 8% held by competitor Vodafone.
O2 is now the biggest mobile network operator in Germany, followed by Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile and Vodafone.