DT CEO moans as bidding in German 5G auction tops €1 billion

Just for a change operators are moaning about the amount they have to pay for licensed spectrum, arguing that leaves less cash for infrastructure.

This time the country in question is Germany, which is in the middle of a 5G auction its operators have had a problem with from the start. According to the regulator bidding has already topped a billion euros and, while it still has a way to go before reaching the orgiastic excesses of the Italian one, muttering about the cost has already begun.

Commenting at its recent AGM, DT CEO Tim Höttges made it clear he has a problem with the fact that not all available spectrum is even being offered in the action, which he reckons is bound to have an inflationary effect. “An artificial shortage of public resources is being created, which may push up the price,” he said. “In the end, there is no money for the build-out.”

There was also some general dissent about excessive regulation, ease and speed of access to new cell sites and access regulation for new fibre networks that is considered counterproductive. But the main theme of his speech at the AGM was ‘sharing and participation’ and featured largely generic sentiments about the importance of communications networks and how totally committed to them DT is.

This auction is expected to hit at least three billion euros but, as we saw in Italy, auctions can easily become frenzied. European operators seem to be feeling increasingly inclined to challenge the terms of spectrum auctions but so far their attempts at legal challenges have yielded little. It does seem odd that the German state has held back a bunch of spectrum, however, and it would be interesting to know the rationale for that.