Page 88 - SAMENA Trends - November 2020

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

The communications regulator approved a plan company will be majority owned by Vodafone Group
to combine passive infrastructure owned by rival through European tower subsidiary Vantage Towers.
operators Vodafone Greece and Wind Hellas, with the Crystal Almond will receive €25 million in cash and a
assets set to be moved into a standalone company 38 per cent stake in the Greek tower business. It is the
Greece and leased back. In a statement, the Hellenic latest attempt by Vodafone to beef-up the assets held
Telecommunications and Post Commission (EETT)
by its Vantage Towers spin-off, which the company
noted having assessed the proposal for competition plans to list on the Frankfurt stock exchange in early
and potential issues around third-party access, it 2021. (November 13, 2020) commsupdate.com
concluded the deal was unlikely to cause significant
issues. The authority did, however, note there would The National Telecommunications & Post Commission
be a “high degree of concentration” in the market as a (EETT) has confirmed that the country’s three
result, though any impacts were apparently not enough incumbent mobile network operators (MNOs), Cosmote,
to reject the deal. Under an agreement struck in July Vodafone and Wind Hellas, all submitted applications
between Vodafone Group and Wind Hellas’ controlling to bid in the 5G auction planned for late this year, by
shareholder Crystal Almond, a combined 5,200 towers the deadline of 30 October. Each cellco applied for all
from the two operators will be moved into the newly available frequency ranges: 700MHz, 2GHz, 3.4GHz-
formed Vantage Towers Greece.nThe infrastructure 3.8GHz and 26GHz. (November 3, 2020) commsupdate.com

The National Media & Infocommunications Authority mobile rivals receiving 15-year 700MHz/3500MHz
(NMHH) confirmed on its website that the Metropolitan licenses. DIGI appealed the regulator’s ruling, originally
Court has dismissed a legal action from fixed and issued in September 2019 for failing to meet bidding
mobile operator DIGI, which had opposed the NMHH’s eligibility criteria, but the NMHH’s second-instance
Hungary decision to exclude it from the country’s 5G frequency decision two months later upheld its initial declaration.
license auction earlier this year. The court found
Currently, DIGI is also protesting publicly about
that the regulator’s decision was based on a correct conditions imposed by the NMHH on Hungary’s next
interpretation of the law. However, DIGI is permitted mobile frequency auction, which it fears will lead to its
to launch an appeal. The NMHH disallowed DIGI from exclusion from the process once again. DIGI has so far
entering a bid in the 5G spectrum license auction, which gathered over 80,000 signatures for its petition on the
went ahead in March 2020 with all three of DIGI’s main matter. (November 13, 2020) commsupdate.com

India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has into account the amount already paid by the operators.
sought a legal opinion from Solicitor General Tushar Vodafone Idea (now operating under the ‘Vi’ banner)
Mehta to clarify the Supreme Court’s order on the and Bharti Airtel have both claimed that as they had
timeline for payment of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) paid more than 10% of the demanded total by the time
India related dues, the Economic Times writes. Earlier this of the ruling, they had satisfied the requirement for that
year the apex court granted operators permission to year and therefore had until March 2022 to pay the next
pay off their AGR-related dues via a series of annual instalment. The DoT, on the other hand, has interpreted
payments up to 31 March 2031, starting with at least the order as taking the sums already paid into account
10% by 31 March 2021. It was not clear from the and requiring that the affected providers pay a further
decision whether the requirement to pay 10% of the 10%.
total by the end of the fiscal year was intended to take (November 12, 2020) commsupdate.com

The Ministry of Communication and Information economic, social and governmental sectors, because
(MCI), known locally as Kementerian Komunikasi dan there are still radio frequency blocks which currently
Informatika (KemKominfo), has reportedly begun the have not been assigned radio frequency band users.’
formal selection process to award 30MHz of radio In short, the allocation is expected to increase MNOs’
Indonesia frequencies in the 2.3GHz band (2360MHz-2390MHz) network capacity, improve service quality and help
for use by mobile network operators (MNOs). accelerate the move towards the implementation of 5G
IndoTelko cites KemKominfo Head of Public Relations in the country. Acting under provisions set out in Article
Ferdinandus Setu as saying: ‘The selection is part of the 11 of the ‘Regulation of the Minister of Communication
[MCI’s] efforts to support digital transformation in the and Information Technology Number 9 of 2018

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