German 5G auction ends with 6.55 billion EUR in total bids

German 5G auction ends with 6.55 billion EUR in total bids

Germany’s Federal Network Agency stated that the 5G auction, which began in March 2019, finished with 6.55 billion EUR paied in total by the four bidders. Deutsche Telekom and also Vodafone Germany criticized the very high prices of the nation’s auction.

Deutsche Telekom bids 2.18 billion EUR for 20×2 MHz in the 2100 MHz band and 90 MHz in the 3600 MHz band. Vodafone paid in the other hand 1.88 billion EUR getting in the 2100 MHz, 20×2 MHz for 806 million EUR and in the 3600 MHz band getting 90 MHz for 1 billion EUR. Telefonica bids 1.4 billion EUR for a total spectrum of 90 MHz, including 2 × 10 MHz in the 2.1 GHz band which was paied for 381.1 million EUR and also 70MHz in the 3600 MHz band for 1.04 billion EUR. The newcomer 1 & 1 Drillisch got 2 × 10 MHz in the 2100 MHz band as well as 50 MHz in the 3600 MHz band for 1.07 billion EUR.

The coverage obligations for the winners include a mandatory requirement to supply speeds of a minimum of 100Mbps to a minimum of 98% of homes in each state by the end of 2022, along with all government highways, and the major roadways and trains. Additionally, each operator will certainly need to set up 1,000 5G base station by the end of 2022, in addition to 500 base terminals in “white area” unserved rural spots. For the newcomer 1&1 Drillish, no coverage requirement was applied.