New 5G licences in Austria to be tied to rural rollout
23/09/2019 14:26
VIENNA, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Austria's telecoms regulator RTR
said on Monday bidders in the second auction of 5G licences will
have to commit to roll out fast internet in rural areas, aiming
to ensure access for every community in the largely rural and
mountainous country.
The auction for 700, 1,500 and 2,100 Mhz bands, which will
provide data rates needed for autonomous driving and to connect
machines and production sites, is planned for spring 2020, RTR
chief Klaus Steinmaurer told a news conference in Vienna.
In contrast to Austria's first 5G auction of the 3.4 to 3.8
GHz band, which will mainly speed up data services in densely
populated areas, the 2020 licences will not be divided among
regions but be awarded nationwide.
To encourage bidders to connect as many communities as
possible, the regulator plans to attach requirements and
incentives to the allocation of the frequencies.
New licences will only be granted under the condition that
the acquirer will provide fast internet for a certain number of
communities that are currently poorly supplied. The buyer can
supply more communities than required for a discount on the
purchase price depending on the number of extra communities.
Potential bidders are invited to discuss the conditions and
targets until Oct. 21, Steinmaurer said.
Austria's three major mobile network providers, which all
bought licenses in the first round, are A1 Telekom Austria
AMXL.MX TELA.VI , which is controlled by Mexican tycoon
Carlos Slim and the Austrian state, Deutsche Telekom's
DTEGn.DE Magenta Telekom and Chinese Hutchison's 0001.HK
Drei Austria.
Deutsche Telekom has said it would invest a total of 1
billion euros until 2021 to build its 5G network in Austria.
A1 Group, in which the state holds 28.4 percent, has said it
would cooperate closely with state-controlled firms including
rail company OeBB, motorway operator Asfinag and residential
property group BIG in expanding and upgrading networks to be
fast and keep costs low.
Austria's economic power is largely based on medium-sized
enterprises and highly specialised small businesses with many of
them, including chip supplier AMS AMS.S AMS.VI , emissions
test specialist AVL List and fire truck maker Rosenbauer
RBAV.VI , niche market leaders.
The government aims for main traffic routes to have 5G
services available by the end of 2023, and to have "virtually
nationwide" 5G coverage by the end of 2025.
(Reporting by Kirsti Knolle; editing by David Evans)
((kirsti.knolle@thomsonreuters.com; +43 1 53 11 22 55;))