The auction consists of two phases. The first is probably the longest. The available pieces of frequencies, there are 26 in total, are made available in auction rounds. A starting amount is placed per round, whereby the provider can indicate whether they want to (continue to) compete for that particular tire. Meijers does not dare to say how long this process will take.
The second phase is mainly a technical one: it then looks at which pieces of frequency a provider receives. When that is also completed, the radio silence is broken. The Ministry of Economic Affairs will then organize a press meeting at which it will be announced which party received which part and what the price is.
Once this is done, the way is open for providers to activate 5G. It is as yet unclear whether this will also happen immediately, but the chance is certainly there. It depends on whether the providers are ready.
A side note
This makes 5G official in the Netherlands (although VodafoneZiggo decided to switch it on earlier on a frequency band intended for 4G). An important side note is that the difference with 4G is still small. The real speed increase is still to come and will only come after an auction, of the 3.5 GHz frequency band, in 2021 or 2022.
In addition, the question is whether there is a so-called killer feature coming. That is the innovation so that you can no longer ignore the network. There are plenty of ideas about this, such as virtual reality, but it remains to be seen whether this will actually be the case. For now, 4G is sufficient for streaming movies and music, for example.
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