German 5G auction to proceed as planned

Germany’s Federal Network Agency (FNA, known locally as the Bundesnetzagentur or BNetzA) has revealed that the 5G auction will go ahead as planned on 19 March. The announcement follows a decision by the Cologne Administrative Court to reject legal challenges launched by participants over the conditions imposed on spectrum licence winners, including coverage obligations. The country’s three incumbent mobile network operators (MNOs) – Telekom Deutschland, Telefonica Deutschland and Vodafone Germany – will compete with Drillisch Netz, a wholly-owned subsidiary of telecoms company 1&1 Drillisch. Overall, a total of 420MHz in the 2100MHz and 3.6GHz bands will be auctioned off.