German federal government drives the expansion of mobile networks by offering postponing of 5G licence fee payment in exchange for development of LTE networks in rural areas. The government signed agreements with the four MNOs Telekom, Vodafone, Telefonica and 1&1 Drillisch on coverage of 99% of households by the end of 2020 in exchange for extending the payment obligation for 5G licences awarded in June this year until 2030, reported DPA.
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French regulator ARCEP presents experimental 5G projects
More than a dozen projects have responded to the call of the French government and the regulatory authority ARCEP from January to create experimental 5G platforms. The platforms in the 26 GHz frequency band (so-called “millimetre” frequency band) shall be open to third parties and promote and identify new uses of 5G. The selected projects relate to areas such as logistics, smart city, mobility and coverage of sporting events.
Martes Specure at Infofest 2019
Martes Specure is participating at Infofest 2019, 26th annual festival of achievements in information technology, taking place in Budva, Montenegro.
Austria consults on another 5G auction with a bonus element
Austrian regulator RTR has published draft auction conditions for the second 5G auction planned for the spring 2020. The auction design is innovative in incorporating bonuses as investment incentives. The pool of frequencies for sale includes: 6 blocks in the 700 MHz band, 12 blocks in the 2100 MHz band and 8 blocks in the 1500 MHz band.
Polish regulator UKE imposes a fine for violation of open internet regulation
Polish regulator UKE imposed a fine of PLN 15,000 on an ISP Skynet for violation of the open internet regulation. The provider failed to meet the requirement to specify the minimum, usually available and maximum download/upload speeds in the customer contracts.
BEREC Net Neutrality Measurement Tool – Implementation Workshops
The new BEREC Net Neutrality Measurement Tool will be available later in 2019. Many European regulators are waiting for this, as they are planning to implement the crowd-sourcing tool at their agency. Alternatively, they might have an existing system and are not sure what the best approach in regard to the new tool would be.
Now it is the perfect time for regulators to start planning the implementation in their own country. Specure is the optimal implementation partner, with rich experience from previous projects and innovative solutions. That is why from September, Specure offers a series of introductory, on-premise workshops for its customers and partners.
4ka launches 5G in Slovakia
Slovak mobile operator Swan Mobile, operating under the brand name 4ka, has conducted the first public 5G video call in the country. The operator demonstrated the video call for journalilsts in the city of Banska Bystrica in the Central Slovakia. During the demo the speed reached 1 Gbps.
All Slovenian MNOs exceed network coverage obligations imposed after the spectrum auction
Slovenian regulator AKOS has found that all three mobile network operators (MNOs) in the country exceed the coverage obligations which were imposed by the regulator’s decisions following an auction for allocation of radio frequencies. AKOS annually monitors the compliance of operators with those obligations. AKOS has also published a detailed compliance report for the coverage in the 900 MHz band and over 1 GHz.
Irish regulator ComReg lacks net neutrality enforcement powers
Irish regulator ComReg is not satisfied with the situation in the market as regards open internet access, but it lacks enforcement powers to intervene, follows from its report on net neutrality for the period from 1 May 2018 to 30 April 2019. Ireland is the only EU member country, whose national regulatory authority (NRA) lacks power to start formal investigations and to issue enforcement orders, as also the European Commission confirmed in its Study on the implementation of the open internet provisions of the Telecoms Single Market Regulation published on 30 April 2019.
Slovak regulator confirms schedule for 5G auction in 700 MHz
Slovak regulatory authority RU has informed that the preparatory works for the 5G auction in the 700 MHz band proceed in line with the schedule to meet the deadline set by the EU decision for the release of the spectrum. The 694-790 MHz band has been used for the digital terrestrial TV (DVB-T) so far. As agreed in the EU, the band shall become available for 5G mobile broadband by 30 June 2020.
