Germany invites applications for May/June spectrum auction

Germany’s telecoms regulator, the Federal Network Agency (FNA, also known as Bundesnetzagentur or BNetzA), has opened the admission procedure for all companies interested in participating in its upcoming auction of spectrum in the 700MHz, 900MHz and 1800MHz frequency bands. In a statement on its website, the watchdog says it has set a deadline of 6 March 2015 for the submission of applications, with the auction scheduled to take place during May and June in Mainz. The sale will feature spectrum in the 900MHz and 1800MHz bands, the current licences for which expire on 31 December 2016, while Germany will become the first European nation to auction off frequencies in the 700MHz range for mobile broadband, in a move aimed at accelerating the deployment of high speed services in rural parts of the country. Last month the FNA’s Advisory Council agreed that winning bidders must provide mobile broadband of at least 50Mbps (download) to a minimum 97% of all households in each federal state and 98% of homes nationwide.