Spain starts process to award additional 5G spectrum in 2022

The pandemic has made Spain have to to delay on several occasions the 700 MHz auction, indirectly also affecting that of 26 GHz. However, the government has gotten tired of waiting, and has already set a date for the 700 MHz auction, and now the process to auction the first band has also begun. mmWave that we will use in Spain for mobile telephony.

After last October the 700 MHz bands On the part of the television channels, it only remains to hold the auction and allow the operators to start operating in them. In addition, the Government is going to launch the public consultation on the 26 GHz band, where all parties affected by its liberalization can comment on problems, solutions or any idea that facilitates the process of making it available to the public.

The 26 GHz public consultation will start soon
What is clear, according to the Government, is that all bands will be liberalized before December 31st. The 3.5 GHz has been free for years, although this year a new block has been added that Movistar and Orange have bought. The 700 MHz will be the next to be auctioned, and the price that operators will pay for it will be the highest in history for a frequency band.

As for the 26 GHz band, this band will be the one that will offer the highest speed thanks to the fact that it has larger frequency blocks. However, there are currently two blocks of 728 MHz each that are currently occupied by radio links, and which will have to be released first before proceeding with the auction.

The band uses the frequencies 24.25 and 27.5 GHz, and will be initially divided into three blocks of immediate use of 378 MHz each, adding a total of 1,135 MHz. The rest of the spectrum is occupied either by the radio links that we mentioned before, or there are other types of limitations that prevent it from being fully utilized.

mmWave – Multi-gigabit speeds with 5G
This band will be the most important in terms of speed, although its range will be very limited. The 26 GHz is in what is known as mmWave, or millimeter bands, due to the small distance between each frequency. With it, 5G will allow speeds of several gigabits to be reached, although with distances of a few hundred meters or more than a kilometer at most if we take into account the range it has in the countries where it is already available.

Therefore, the immediate step that we will see in the 5G frequency auction will be the 700 MHz auction at the end of this month of May or in June at the latest. The collection is expected to be about 1,170 million eurosAlthough the figure could vary if the Government gives in to the demands of the operators, who have asked them to reduce it.

The Government has also recently ceded with the concession periods, which go from 20 to 40 years so that operators can have the frequency bands they acquire, allowing them to guarantee their long-term profitability. In this case, they will also forgive 90 million euros in taxes to the operators in the form of a bonus so that they deploy 5G faster. TechSmart