Germany’s Federal Network Agency (FNA, known locally as the Bundesnetzagentur or BNetzA) has increased the minimum bid size with a view to bringing the ongoing 5G mobile spectrum auction to an end.
Reuters cites the regulator as saying that the increase has been imposed on the 3.5GHz band bidding. The auction began on 19 March and total bids placed by the four participants – Telekom Deutschland, Telefonica Deutschland, Vodafone Germany and Drillisch Netz – have reached EUR6.37 billion (USD716.9 million) after 481 rounds. Overall, 420MHz of spectrum is being sold off, comprising 2×60MHz of paired spectrum in the 1920MHz-1980MHz/2110MHz-2170MHz range (divided into 2×5MHz blocks) and 300MHz of unpaired spectrum in the 3400MHz-3700MHz range (blocks of 10MHz).