Interested parties now have time to submit their own position papers commenting on the Federal Network Agency’s consultation draft until 28 February. The agency said it is aiming to carry out these auctions in 2018.
Auction opposition
Several of Germany’s telecoms companies have already criticized the Federal Network Agency’s plans to auction off frequencies, noting that frequency auctions will deprive them of financial means to invest in the expansion of 5G networks. The German government has already said it wants to use the frequency auctions to raise money to finance the expansion of a nationwide gigabit network, said German daily Handelsblatt.
Telecom companies paid on average EUR 8.5 billion for UMTS frequencies in 2010, and over EUR 60 billion have flown into German state coffers over the last 17 years as a result of these auctions, Markus Haas, the head of Telefonica Deutschland, told Handelsblatt. Haas said the Federal Network Agency’s auction plans "won’t work out" if the regulator again initiates a competitive auction procedure for firms and then demands these companies invest in building a high-quality mobile network in rural areas.
Deutsche Telekom also warned the Federal Network Agency against driving up prices for frequencies "out of a political calculation", according to Handelsblatt.
