Poland’s Office of Electronic Communications (Urzad Komunikacji Elektronicznej, UKE) has launched its second round of consultation for the planned award of 5G spectrum in the 3400MHz-3800MHz band later this year. The regulator has ignored calls from operators which wanted the reserve price lowered from PLN450 million (USD116 million). As noted in CommsUpdate earlier this month, Orange Polska and P4 (Play) contacted UKE to request that the reserve price for each of the four available licences be cut to around PLN248 million. The two operators calculated the lower reserve price based on similar 5G sales in countries such as Finland, Italy, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Ireland and the UK.
The regulator has also maintained the limit of one 80MHz block per bidder, despite fears that this could lead to a block going unsold if one of the country’s four main cellcos opts to withdraw from the bidding.
Meanwhile, UKE is also calling on licensees to speed up their network rollouts, giving them four months instead of the previous six to install at least ten base stations in one nominated city following the award of concessions. By the end of 2023 licensees must have deployed at least 300 base stations (originally 250) and by the end of 2025 the target is now 700 sites (originally 500).