Italian regulator consults on extension of 3.5GHz permits

Italy’s Communications Regulatory Authority (Autorita per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni, Agcom) has opened a public consultation into the extension of 3.5GHz licences for wireless broadband services. In November 2019 an Italian court backed an Agcom decision to extend existing 3.5GHz permits for six years to end-2029, but it said that the financial side of the extension would need clarifying. Cellcos which paid high prices for 3.5GHz spectrum in the October 2018 5G licence auction had complained that existing wireless broadband licensees Aria (now part of Fastweb), Linkem, GO internet and Mandarin were being allowed to utilise frequencies in neighbouring bands for a fraction of the cost of their own 5G permits.