Telecoms regulator the Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications (BIPT) has awarded the remaining 4G frequencies in the 2.6GHz band to Citymesh, which was the only applicant to submit a bid.
The operator paid the minimum price of EUR15.01 million (USD17.62 million) for a 15-year nationwide licence comprising 2×15MHz of spectrum (2520MHz-2535MHz/2640MHz-2655MHz). Citymesh, which already possesses management rights in the 3.4GHz-3.6GHz band, is mainly active in the B2B sector, some industrial areas in Flanders and windfarms in the North Sea. A spectrum cap of 2×20MHz in the band meant Orange Belgium, Proximus and Telenet were excluded from the auction.