Italy's 5G Spectrum Auction Controversy

5G spectrum auctions went far better than expected in Italy for the government. According to Mobile World Live:

Vodafone Italia and Telecom Italia each spent €2.4 billion to grab the largest share of spectrum on offer in an Italian auction of 5G-suitable frequencies, which raised €4 billion more than the minimum amount targeted by the government.

All four of the country’s operators secured spectrum. Newcomer Iliad Italia spent €1.2 billion, while Wind Tre acquired licences to the value of €517 million.

In a statement, Italy’s Ministry for Economic Development said the auction generated “lively competition” especially for the lots of 3.7GHz. In that band, Vodafone and Telecom Italia were both awarded 80MHz at a cost of €1.7 billion each, while the other two operators secured allocations of 20MHz for €484 million apiece.

Telecom Italia and Vodafone Italia also bought 200MHz of 26GHz (mmWave) and 20MHz in the 700MHz band. Iliad won 200MHz in the 26GHz band, alongside its 20MHz of 3.7GHz and 10MHz in the 700MHz band. Wind Tre acquired 20MHz of 3.7GHz and 200MHz in the 26GHz band.

Licences are valid for 19 years, with the exception of 700MHz allocations, which will not be released until 2022 and cover a term of 15.5 years. 

A similar 5G spectrum auction in Finland in 3.4 - 3.8 GHz band raised a mere €77.6 million for the Finnish government. According to Light Reading:

The home of Nokia yesterday wrapped up an auction of spectrum in the 3.4-3.8GHz range that raised just €77.6 million ($89.3 million) for the government, barely enough to refurbish some local saunas. Italy's runaway sale of 3.6-3.8GHz spectrum, by contrast, yesterday passed the €6 billion ($6.9 billion) milestone. Assuming the government doesn't waste it on celebratory Prosecco, the eventual windfall could plug more than a few holes in the public-sector purse. 
...

Finland's auction has been restrained for a couple of reasons. First, the government decided to auction three very large spectrum blocks of equal size. Second, the Finnish mobile market has effectively consolidated into a three-player affair, a ménage à trois in which everyone is reasonably content.

Consequently, Telia Finland, Elisa Corp. and DNA Oy each walked away with a 130MHz license that did not come at eye-watering expense. While Telia Company shelled out the most with a €30.3 million ($34.9 million) payment, no operator spent dramatically more than government base prices of either €23 million ($26.5 million) or €21 million ($24.2 million), depending on the allocation in question. Elisa and DNA paid €26.3 million ($30.3 million) and €21 million ($24.2 million) for their concessions, respectively.

In Italy, the government appears to have chopped a 200MHz block of spectrum into four uneven chunks, two of 80MHz and two of 20MHz. A 20MHz channel would not really be enough for most advanced 5G services, though, and operators know it. Four of them are fighting over these airwaves after competition authorities recently opened the door to France's Iliad, one of Europe's most aggressive mobile operators. Their aim was to prevent Italy from consolidating into a dreaded three-player mobile market with the merger of 3 Italia and Wind.

The following is a summary of all the spectrum courtesy of Fitch Solutions Macro Research:

Finnish Spectrum Auction, October 2018

Source: Ficora
Band	Operator	Price (EUR)
3410-3540MHz	Telia	30,258,000
3540-3670MHz	Elisa	26,347,000
3670-3800MHz	DNA	21,000,000

Italian Spectrum Auction

Source: Ministry Of Economic Development
Band	Operator	Price (EUR)
700MHz	Iliad	676,472,792
700MHz	Vodafone	345,000,000
700MHz	TIM	340,100,000
700MHz	TIM	340,100,000
700MHz	Vodafone	338,236,396
3700MHz (80MHz)	TIM	1,694,000,000
3700MHz (80MHz)	Vodafone	1,685,000,000
3700MHz (20MHz)	WindTre	483,920,000
3700MHz (20MHz)	Iliad	483,900,000
26GHz	TIM	33,020,000
26GHz	Iliad	32,900,000
26GHz	Fastweb	32,600,000
26GHz	WindTre	32,586,535
26GHz	Vodafone	32,586,535

It will be interesting to see how it works out in 5G and if operators are still able to deploy a 5G network that is compared to other European countries.

Further Reading:

• ITU Forum “Towards 5G Enabled Gigabit Society”: Regulation and award of 5G pioneer bands in Italy - Mauro Martino, Head of Telecommunications Spectrum Office, Digital Services and Network Direction, AGCOM
• Mobile World Live: Operators splash €6.5B in Italy 5G spectrum auction
• Light Reading: Finland's 5G Sale Is No Italian Job
• Fitch Solutions: Italy Overpaying, Finland Underpaying For 5G Spectrum

Elisa claims "first in world to launch commercial 5G" - technical details and controversy

The Finnish & Estonian mobile operator Elisa staked the claim for "first in world to launch commercial 5G". Their press release states: 

Elisa has become the first operator in the world to begin commercial use of a 5G network and starts selling 5G subscriptions. The 5G network was used for the first time to make a video call to Kadri Simson, Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure in Estonia. The video call is yet another historical achievement by Elisa: the first GSM telephone call in the world was also made using Elisa’s network. 

Source: Niina Johansson

The world’s first commercial 5G networks were launched today in Tampere and Tallinn.

–  We aim to make Finland the leading nation as a developer of 5G mobile services. The Ministry of Communications is ready to allocate the first 5G licences to the 3,400–3,800 megahertz frequency band in autumn, which will make Finland among the first countries in the world to start building 5G networks, says Anne Berner, Minister of Transport and Communications.

Source: Estonian World

5G will offer several new features to users of mobile services. For instance, 5G enables considerably faster data speeds and lower latency, as well as allowing a significantly larger number of devices to connect to the network.  This higher speed benefited the video call made over the world’s first commercial 5G network. Elisa, together with Huawei, used the first commercial 5G terminal devices in the world to make the call.

I blogged earlier about Ooredoo, STC and Etisalat staking the claim for world's first 5G networks. At least the press release by Ooredoo and Etisalat did mention the word "Commercial".

Elisa’s commercial 5G Network opened with 5 G video call from Tampere to Tallinn. @elisaoyj #5G #thefirstcall pic.twitter.com/ngjiC1JBOW

— Jaakko Wallenius (@jaakkow) June 27, 2018

Elisa's press release mentions that the licenses are yet to be allocated. Last year, the Finnish regulator FICORA issued 13 radio licences in slices of up to 100 MHz in the 3.5GHz band and up to 1,000 MHz in the 26GHz band. At that time, Elisa was already working with Nokia on 5G showing off peak data speeds were 1.5GBps and the lowest latency was 1.5 milliseconds.

This launch is with Huawei and Elisa was able to show up to 2.2Gbps. There is a picture of base station here for anyone interested.

According to this FierceWireless News:

Elisa said that together with Huawei, it used the first commercial 5G terminal devices in the world to make the call. In an email, Eetu Prieur, Elisa’s head of mobile technology, described the devices as wireless 5G routers.

At the moment, the 5G network covers the city center in Tampere and Tallin, according to Prieur. The operator is offering two subscription alternatives: unlimited data with unlimited voice for €49.90/month (about $57 U.S.) and unlimited data (voice not included) for €44.90/month (about $52 U.S.)

So this is more of a Fixed-Wireless Access kind of deployment with wireless routers backhauling on to 5G network. I am assuming the voice calls are more of VoWiFi or app based calling.

See Also:

• First impressions from the world’s first commercial 5G network - Rewheel research, August 2018

Estonia Mobile Operator Overview

Source.

Earlier this month, Estonia's largest mobile operator, EMT, announced that it had covered 95 percent of the country with its 4G LTE network.

According to EMT chief executive Valdo Kalm, Estonia is the first country in Europe, and the third in the world, to reach the milestone.

"Sweden and Denmark are the countries competing for the second and third place in Europe with about 50 percent of their territory covered with 4G LTE," he said, 

adding that globally only Estonia, Singapore and South Korea have passed the 95 percent mark.

EMT — which is owned by TeliaSonera, the Swedish telecommunications company that launched the world's first commercial 4G network in 2009 — opened Estonia's first 

4G network in February 2010, when it was the 11th such network globally at the time.

The second operator to come to the local 4G market was Tele2, the country's third-largest operator, which launched its network in November 2012. It was followed 

some months later by second-largest operator Elisa, which launched its LTE network in February this year.

Source.

Three of Estonia's mobile operators are preparing to offer LTE-Advanced connectivity later this year in the country's capital, Tallinn. Next year, they hope to extend coverage to bigger towns and more densely-populated areas across the country.

According to the CTO of Tele2 Estonia, Ervins Kampans, during the recent upgrade work on mobile infrastructure in the Baltic states, the company rolled out LTE-Advanced tech capable of offering download speeds of up to 300Mbps.  With LTE-A already in place, the company is now waiting for end-user devices to enter the market before opening up the network to the public.

"In the areas where we do have 4G now, we actually have built in LTE-Advanced as well, but it isn't switched on yet. The hardware is ready and to light up the 

LTE-Advanced network; we only need to switch on software and adjust it according to the end-user devices," he said.

"The most important question for us now is, when will the end-user devices be ready for commercial use? We are expecting LTE-Advanced internet dongles to arrive first and

 then Cat 6 [LTE-category 6 connectivity with download speeds of up to 300Mbps] mobile phones."

Tele2 is the last of the three operators in Estonia to fully cover the country with 4G, having been awarded an 800MHz licence during the country's spectrum auctions only last year.

The operator hopes to achieve 95 percent LTE coverage during the summer months.

EMT, the biggest mobile operator in Estonia, has also started testing LTE-Advanced technology and, according to a spokesperson for the operator,

it's likely to be commercially available to consumers by the end of this year.

Source.