Elisa Estonia has reportedly lodged a complaint over the way that 5G mobile licences have been distributed and specifically, the additional bandwidth obtained by rival Tele2 Estonia which it claims secured the extra frequencies without having to go through the official auction process. ERR News writes that with the second tranche of spectrum allocations ongoing, with one more round to follow, Tele2 Estonia is ‘the beneficiary of unequal treatment’ as it currently holds additional bandwidth at 2300MHz by dint of the takeover of two companies (ST Networks and the former Televorgu AS) back in 2006 and 2010, whose frequencies were later altered, in 2017.
In response, the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority (TTJA) has reportedly rejected Elisa Estonia’s complaint stating that ‘the change made no difference in overall bandwidth owned,’ and clarified that the amendment to the licences in 2017 were only related to ‘security considerations and to free up frequencies used by the defence sector’. The TTJA has also dismissed Elisa’s argument that it is ‘unfair’ that in effect, ‘a gift of millions of euros has been given to a private company’ and that the TTJA’s amendment greatly favours Tele2 – as does the expansion of the scope of their use. Responding, TTJA communications manager Oliver Gailan said: ‘The TTJA considers Elisa’s resentment unjustified, as the permits granted to Tele2 have been acquired legally,’ and pointed out that even now, Elisa holds more frequency resources than its competitors.