The public consultation on the tender for 700 MHz frequencies in 5G will close on January 17

The making available of the 700 MHz band frequencies is part of the Strategy to Promote 5G, which will invest 2,000 million euros in the next five years to encourage the deployment of networks of this technology.

Until next time January 17 the Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructures of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation will keep open public consultation on the conditions that should govern the auction of the 700 MHz frequencies, one of the priority bands for the deployment of 5G and whose tender is scheduled for the first quarter of 2021.

These frequencies have been freed from their previous use by the DTT channels that occupied them through the Second Digital Dividend process, which was completed on October 31.

Likewise, the bidding conditions for the 700 MHz band will be voluntarily submitted to peer review tomorrow within the Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG) of the European Union.

This mutual learning instrument is one of the new features incorporated in Directive (EU) 2018/1972 of the European Electronic Communications Code. Its objective is for Member States to exchange experiences and good practices on the process of assigning radio spectrum frequencies.

Among the aspects of the future tender that are subject to public consultation and will be shared in the peer review include the general rules of the same, the duration of the licenses of each concession, which is proposed to be 20 years, and the eight frequency blocks that will be auctioned: a 2x10 MHz concession; 4 2×5 MHz concessions, in the paired band 703-733 MHz and 758-788 MHz, and three 5 MHz concessions for downward-only communications in the 738-753 MHz band.

Likewise, the text proposes establishing a two-level coverage requirements model: a first level, mandatory for concessionaires of the 2x5 MHz blocks, and a second level of additional requirements for the 2x10 MHz block.

The consultation allows progress towards the objective of facilitating the availability of priority frequency bands for 5G services, established in the first axis of action of the Strategy to Promote 5G Technology, recently presented in the Council of Ministers and which will have public financing of 2,000 million euros until 2025, of which 300 million already appear in the General State Budgets for 2021.

5G, the fifth generation of mobile technology, enables hyperconnectivity (permanent, high-capacity, low-latency, high-speed connections between people and machines), enabling innovative applications that will facilitate the digital transformation of the economy and society and drive recovery after the health crisis. For this reason, it is one of the priorities of both the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism of the European Union and the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan of the Spanish economy and one of the axes of the Digital Spain 2025 Agenda, the roadmap for digital transformation in Spain.

The public consultation on the conditions of the auction of the 700 MHz frequencies will remain open until January 17, 2021. The text can be consulted here.