News
The main phase of Belgium’s mobile spectrum auction raised 1.2 billion euros, according to the Belgian regulator BIPT (The Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications). The auction raised 468.5 million euros more than expected because of a succession of higher bids.
This phase of the auction, which started on 1st June, covered the new 5G spectrum (700 MHz, 3600 MHz) and the existing 2G and 3G radio spectrum (900MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100MHz).
Five key bidders took part: Citymesh Mobile, Network Research Belgium, Orange Belgium, Proximus and Telenet.
The highest spend came from Proximus at 491 million euros, which the operator claims has secured them 20% more spectrum than all participating companies.
Orange Belgium came in next having spent 322 million euros and claiming to have obtained the maximum amount of the new 5G spectrum bands available for auction. This round of bidding saw the operator acquire 200 MHz of spectrum in total. In a separate announcement this week, Orange Belgium also announced its plans to start phasing out 3G technology by mid-2023.
The third highest spend came from Telenet at 264.3 million euros.
Newcomers to the market, Citymesh Mobile and Network Research Belgium, also participated and acquired spectrum.
