WiMAX operators in the 3.5GHz band get to renew their licences at a fraction of the cost MNOs paid for similar licenses in a recent auction
Three years of legal wrangling: Italian operators have been involved in legal challenges over the renewal of 3.5GHz spectrum licences. These were awarded to WiMAX operators back in 2008, and are set to expire in 2023. Licence holders have the option to renew their rights of use until 2029. The conflict arose over the price for the renewal. In 2018, the Italian regulator AGCOM set the price based on the reserve price for the 3.7GHz band which was about to be auctioned off. This resulted in the Government asking four operators – Aria (Tiscali), Go Internet, Linkem, Mandarin – to pay €70.9m to keep their licences.
Mobile operators felt hard done by after the 5G auction: The 3.7GHz auction turned out to be very costly for mobile operators, who paid a whopping €4.34bn – 11 times the reserve price, and an extremely high figure by international comparisons. This was even more important in light of the wholesale agreement between Tiscali and Fastweb, through which the latter obtained access to Tiscali’s 3.5GHz spectrum for just €198m. MNOs appealed against the renewal decision, and were partially successful. The Administrative Tribunal of Rome ruled that the renewal was legitimate, but its price needed to take into account the results of the 3.7GHz award.
Is Fastweb the real winner? On Tuesday, the Council of State overturned that decision of the Administrative Tribunal. The Council rejected the argument that the price for the renewal needed to be revised, and noted that AGCOM followed the correct procedure in setting it initially. Mobile operators will have to live with the fact that they paid significantly more for similar airwaves – and will have to watch out for Fastweb’s 5G launch, which cleverly secured 3.5GHz spectrum for a cheap price.
