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Spain will put 200MHz of spectrum up for auction as the country prepares itself for 5G
Spain has announced that it is ready to begin auctioning spectrum for 5G in the coming months. The country’s Ministry for Energy, Tourism and Digital has said that it will place 200 MHz of spectrum up for sale in the 3.6-3.8 GHz band. The spectrum will be divided into 40 separate blocks of 5GHz, and priced at €2.5 million per block. The Spanish regulator anticipates that the auction will raise €100 million.
The registration deadline for interested parties is 29th June 2018, with bidding expected to be complete by the 20th April 2018. The spectrum licences will be valid for 20 years.
Bidders will be subject to a 120MHz cap at the auction. Orange Espana currently own 40 MHz of 3.5GHz spectrum that it purchased in 2016, so will be restricted to an additional 80MHz at this summer’s auction.
Telefonica has recently stated that it will not have a commercial 5G offering in the market before 2020, and that those who do risk rushing out an inferior 5G-light style product.
Telefonica is pressing ahead with 5G research in Spain, transforming two Spanish cities into living 5G labs.
Telefonica will deploy the scheme in the cities of Segovia and Talavera de la Reina, in partnership with Nokia and Ericsson. Nokia will work with Telefonica in Segovia and Ericsson will partner Telefonica in Talavera de la Reina.
“With the 5G Technological Cities project, Telefónica is turning the technology of the future into reality and providing a constant service for people. This is why we will perform the technological deployment and use cases in parallel, so that we will serve people with the new technologies, one of Telefónica’s clear objectives,” said Luis Miguel Gilpérez, CEO of Telefónica Spain.
