The Danish minister for energy presented the ‘5G Action Plan for Denmark’, which looks at possible network sharing.
The plan: The Danish government has set out a 5G strategy sitting on four pillars – spectrum, roll-out, regulation, and application. Each theme contains a number of action points to be implemented together with public sector, telcos, and relevant industries. The plan will aim to identify whether telcos can share networks; whether dedicated local networks can be established; and barriers to roll-out and use of 5G. The ‘regulation’ pillar hints at work to ensure that net neutrality rules do not hinder network slicing.
The auction: Having initially planned it for Q4 2018, the government is now ready to award spectrum in the 700MHz (2x30MHz in lots of 10MHz each, plus 20MHz unpaired in 5MHz blocks); 900MHz (2x30MHz in lots of 10MHz each), and 2.3GHz bands (100MHz, of which one 40MHz lot and six 10MHz lots). Coverage obligations and spectrum caps have been set for all bands.
Next steps: The award is now scheduled to occur at the end of February 2019. According to the 5G plan, more spectrum (3.5GHz, 26GHz bands) will be made available by 2020.
