Seven telcos have pre-qualified for Italy’s auction of 5G wireless spectrum, which is set to get underway next month. Telecom Italia (TIM), Wind Tre, Vodafone, Iliad, Fastweb, Linkem and Open Fiber will all compete for frequencies which will allow them to deploy ultra-high speed mobile networks.
1275MHz of spectrum is on offer in the 700MHz band (75MHz between 694MHz-790MHz), 3.6GHz band (200MHz between 3600MHz-3800MHz) and 26GHz band (1000MHz between 26.5GHz-27.5GHz), with the government hoping to raise at least EUR2.5 billion (USD2.9 billion) from the sale. A report from CorCom says that Iliad is set to concentrate on the 700MHz range, which has a portion of frequencies reserved for a new entrant, while Open Fiber is said to be interested only in the 26GHz spectrum.