News item | 30-03-2023 | 6:00 PM
The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy (EZK) will hold a national auction of frequencies for fast mobile communication such as 5G technology. Tomorrow (31 March), Minister Micky Adriaansens (EZK) will start consultation on the draft regulations, including the auction set-up and the minimum yield (€ 176.1 million). After the auction in the autumn of 2023, at least three telecom parties will be able to offer services to consumers and companies via the so-called 3.5 Gigahertz band.
The extra space (300 Megahertz) to offer national mobile communication such as 5G everywhere in the Netherlands can be taken into use from 1 December this year. In this 3.5 GHz band, 2×50 Megahertz (out of a total of 400) will also remain available for local wireless applications of companies and organizations, such as in the port of Rotterdam. A satellite company can temporarily still have limited space (80 Megahertz) in this band to continue its activities until a new location in Greece is operational (the aim is from 1 January 2024).
Minister Micky Adriaansens (EZK): “Consumers and companies are making full use of digitalisation. That is why data traffic in the Netherlands is increasing sharply and the construction of improved networks for the provision of fast mobile internet via 5G is necessary. Because the space for this is scarce, we will auction it. The aim is an always available, fast and secure digital infrastructure. For all Dutch people who use the internet and for entrepreneurs to be successful with their business processes, services and products.”
Proposed set-up auction 2023
The proposal is to take measures at the auction in the autumn of 2023 to ensure that participating market parties have access to a maximum of forty percent of the total available frequencies. This also includes the current licenses of providers. This means that there will be at least three providers of public, fast mobile communication such as via 5G. In this way, the Ministry of Economic Affairs guarantees that there will be sufficient competition in the telecom market leading to quality, innovation and reasonable prices for consumers and businesses.
The permits are distributed in a multi-round auction. With increasing prices, participants bid on the number of licenses they want to acquire, as long as supply and demand are exactly equal. Afterwards, the winning lots will be announced and the minister will make the entire bidding process public. The proposed reserve prices for the permits, or the starting prices in the auction, total € 176.1 million.
At the previous auction in 2020, the cabinet already established high-quality mobile coverage with a coverage requirement of 98% of the surface area of every Dutch municipality. Norms also apply therein for the minimum speed at the extreme edges of a mobile network. Due to these requirements, the Dutch mobile internet speed averages more than 100 Mbps (Megabits per second), so that consumers and companies can work and surf undisturbed. The maximum speed near a network antenna is even twenty times higher (above 2 Gigabit per second). The Netherlands thus remains a global leader with the latest mobile networks.