BIPT is going to organize the auction of 5G spectrum in June. This will finally provide concrete timing for the start of the rollout of 5G in our country.
This June, BIPT is organizing the long-awaited auction for the allocation of radio spectrum to operators. With that auction, telecom providers can finally obtain the official spectrum licenses they need to roll out 5G in Belgium.
Auction in June
BIPT today published a call for applications for the auction. Aspiring operators can apply until February 16. BIPT will then assess the admissibility of each candidacy, before proceeding with the actual auction sometime in June 2022. This will take place anonymously. Only after the auction, BIPT publishes the names of the laureates and the allocated spectrum.
The auction covers all radio spectrum for mobile communications. In other words, the frequencies used today for 2G, 3G and 4G will also go under the hammer again. Specifically, operators can bid for spectrum within the 700 MHz, 900 MHz, 1,400 MHz, 1,800 MHz, 2,100 MHz and 3,600 MHz frequency bands. 700 MHz, 1,400 MHz and 3,600 MHz are the most important for 5G deployment. The auctioned spectrum is allocated for 20 years.
Fourth operator
With the auction, BIPT foresees room for the arrival of a fourth operator. There is a good chance that Citymesh will show interest in this. That company does not hide its ambition to compete with Telenet, Proximus and Orange. Obviously, the three big operators are also planning to buy their share of the cake again.
Citymesh already has a 5G license today courtesy of some oddities in spectrum allocation in recent years. Initially, Citymesh said it wanted to focus only on the B2B market, but since the company’s acquisition for Cegeka, an entry into the consumer market is also on the table.
Finale of a sad soap opera
The auction will be the final piece of a sad soap opera in which pointless political discussions have delayed the rollout of 5G in our country by about three years. The federal government and those of the states could not agree on the money distribution of the auction and at the time did not see fit to collect the pennies first and only distribute them afterwards. However, that was what then Telecom Minister proposed back in 2019.
After three years of nonsens, peppered with pleas from operators to arrange the auction, the current government finally decided to place the estimated proceeds of 800 million in a separate account and arrange the distribution later. With the bullet through the church, the RD authorizing the auction could finally be voted on and published. Fortunately, Belgian operators could already start pilot projects in recent years, courtesy of BIPT.