Telefonica Germany has filed a lawsuit against the 5G auction rules set by the German Federal Network Agency, according to an Handelsblatt report. Telefonica Germany’s spokesman Guido Heitmann said that the company wants legal clarity, in particular over a proposed requirement to provide local roaming.
Telefonica filed a lawsuit at the Cologne Administrative Court shortly before Christmas. The spokesman said that network operators have to invest massively in areas that would not be covered by frequencies provided in the auction process.
Deutsche Telekom has also announced it's considering a possible lawsuit against the auction process. The Federal Network Agency set the auction rules in November, and Vodafone was the first to say it was planning legal action.
The German government has proposed to change the Telecommunication Law in order to enforce local roaming to close the gaps in mobile service in rural areas. The change in law would mean that in future providers would be required to share frequencies and infrastructure.
The German Federal Network Agency has criticized the government proposal for mandatory local roaming, saying that it would lead to legal uncertainties in the upcoming 5G auction. The agency wrote in a letter to the Federal Ministries of Economy and Transport that changes in the law could jeopardize the auction of 5G spectrum licences, according to a Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung report.
