When rolling out their fast 5G networks, the national mobile providers have to temporarily hand in a quarter of their bandwidth for a satellite station in Burum in Friesland. That will last until January 1, 2024, with a possible extension until 2025.
That is the advice of an independent committee that looked at the National Frequency Plan at the behest of the judge. This advice was published on Thursday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate. Dutch consumers will probably have to wait until 2024 before the successor to 4G offers noticeably higher speeds across the country than now.
The new 5G networks will use the 3.5 GHz band. That frequency offers more bandwidth for data traffic than the lower frequencies that providers currently use. But the 5G networks ‘collide’ with the frequency used by a satellite station in Burum in Friesland. That is where the company Inmarsat is located, which, among other things, receives the distress signals from ships all over the world. That transfer is in danger of being disrupted by new 5G networks.
Also read: What still stands in the way of the fast 5G network?
Inmarsat protested against the frequency plan of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The judge ruled in favor of the satellite company: the frequency plan must be adjusted. Inmarsat is already planning a move to Greece that will be completed around 2024. The company still has to negotiate with Economic Affairs about compensation for the accelerated relocation.
The advisory committee is counting on an auction of the 3.5 GHz band in mid-2023 and actual commissioning on 1 December 2023. That is one and a half years later than originally planned. Moreover, the frequency lots to be auctioned are less valuable due to the temporary limitation.
The national license holders (presumably KPN, T-Mobile and VodafoneZiggo) will not be able to use 300 MHz, but 220 MHz for 5G until 2025 at the latest.
For the national networks, the temporary restriction is a setback. It requires additional adjustments when setting up the network – it could lead to the carriers preferring to wait with faster 5G, so that they can use the full bandwidth right away.
In addition, the providers are concerned about dozens of locations in the Randstad where 5G networks ‘collide’ with local license holders using the same frequency until September 2026. This concerns, for example, wireless security cameras from municipalities, wireless networks in the logistics sector or mobile broadband providers in rural areas.
The advisory committee does not rule on these possible collisions between private and public mobile networks – that fell outside the court’s remit. Minister Micky Adriaansens (Economic Affairs and Climate, VVD) will present a cabinet response before this summer and an amendment to the national frequency plan.