Telecom Italia, which operates under the TIM brand, has been named as the highest bidder in Italy’s auction of 5G wireless spectrum. The Ministry of Economic Development (Ministero dello Svilluppo Economico, MiSE) has revealed that TIM made opening bids totalling EUR951 million (USD1.1 billion) for spectrum in the 700MHz, 3.6GHz and 26GHz bands.
Meanwhile, Iliad, which launched mobile services in Italy in May, has so far offered EUR749 million for frequencies, including EUR676.5 million for a block of 700MHz band spectrum which has been reserved for a new market entrant. Wind Tre, Vodafone and Fastweb round out the bidders, with a total of EUR2.48 billion having been offered by the five participants. The competitive phase of the auction begins on Thursday 13 September.