If the mobile radio standard 5G the speech is, is not the discussion about Huawei and Chinese spies. However, the auction has to do the frequencies from Tuesday. Nevertheless, Huawei is the elephant in the room.
Four companies offer starting on Tuesday (19.03.2019) on the frequencies and networks for mobile telephony and fast Internet of the next Generation (5G): It is the mobile provider, Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, Telefonica (O2) and 1&1 drill.
Huawei not with offers. The Chinese group is not a network operator, but technology, with the help of other companies, their networks are operated. However, the company could play in the strategies of the bidder role. More on that later.
“For the First, Second,…”
An auctioneer with a mallet, calling constantly, “Who offers more?”, it will not give in this auction. And – no joke – who wants to bid on the mobile radio frequencies, must give his mobile phone.
The auction of the Federal network Agency, will take place in rooms in Mainz. Each company offers with its Team in a separate room on a “self-sufficient auction network,” said Agency spokesman Fiete Wulff. “Between them, the bidders are not able to communicate. You the option of secure communication with their respective headquarters.”
A total of 41 frequency blocks are available for purchase, on the same time in predetermined increments. “After an hour at a bidding round ends, then we will announce the current highest bids and publish them on the Internet,” said Wulff to the DW. “The auction starts in the morning at eight o’clock, at the latest at 18:30 is a day of auction end.”
A day, but not the whole auction. The only ends when there are no new bids on the frequency blocks. And this can take time. “The last big auction of 2015 ended after 181 bidding rounds, which lasted three weeks,” Wulff says, “in 2010, it took six weeks.”
Telefonica, Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom are the largest network operators in Germany. The fourth bidder 1&1 drill.
Court clears the way
The scheduled start of the auction this Tuesday was long doubtful, because some companies were dragged to court. So the requirements are the three major network operators German Telekom, Vodafone and Telefonica to strictly. By 2022, they should provide in each state, 98 percent of households with fast Internet. In addition, they are forced to negotiate with competitors, at least about whether or not these are allowed to use your network.
Conversely, the mobile service provider Freenet, does not have its own network, and not on the new frequencies, the major providers court and agree to open their networks to small providers wanted.
This Urgency has, the Cologne administrative court on Friday (15.03.) dismissed, clearing the path for the auction.
The Federal network Agency will be happy that your requirements have been approved by the court. “The requirements are ambitious. And they are a compromise between what is political and what is economically reasonable,” says her spokesman Fiete Wulff. “Now, the tenderer can show in the auction, what the frequencies are.”
However, Achim Berg, President of the industry Association Bitkom criticized, the “support corset” for the companies involved. It is the planned investment in question, Berg said on Monday in Berlin.
Huawei is the market leader among the competitors, Nokia from Finland, Ericsson from Sweden, and Cisco from the US
And Huawei?
A great deal of uncertainty remains even after the start of the Auction. Because the bidders do not know the extent to which they technology of the Chinese equipment manufacturer Huawei in building their networks.
In some countries, no technology may be used for the market leader in 5G networks. And the United States put pressure on the Federal government, Huawei can also be ruled out.
That it comes so far, is considered to be unlikely. Security was “a great Good, especially in the case of the Development of the 5G network. Therefore, we define our Standards,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the last week. The Ambassador of the USA in Germany, Richard Grenell, had been threatened with consequences, should Huawei come in Germany.
The Federal network Agency is expected this spring to update the safety requirements that apply in the German networks. Also a change in the law is not excluded, but would take longer.
Can lead to uncertainty in terms of Huawei, the network operator can offer less money for the frequencies, because the network expansion is, perhaps, more expensive? The DW companies, please refer to the auction rules, which forbid you to speak of your bidding strategy.
Billion Yes, but how many?
“We are watching the discussion very carefully, we are not involved in the current speculation,” said about Telefonica spokesman Florian Streicher. The company care at 5G “collaborations with a number of innovative service providers”, and set “only accredited and reliable telecommunications equipment supplier”.
How much money the auction of the frequencies ultimately brings, is also open. The German Finance Minister, Olaf Scholz, expected in the autumn, with four to five billion euros.
It is but not all of it. as much as possible to take, says network Agency spokesman Wulff. “Our goal is to assign frequencies to companies that are able to enhance the mobile network in Germany.”
In the summer of 2000 it was still different. At that time, the state of so-called UMTS auction mobile frequencies for the equivalent of 50 billion Euro. A note of success, as it turned out later: Then the money was missing for the nationwide network expansion.