Estonia’s Consumer Protection & Technical Regulatory Authority (TTJA) has announced Telia as the winner of the country’s second-phase 5G 3500MHz spectrum licence auction, after the company placed the highest bid of EUR8.500 million (USD8.574 million). The auction spanned 70 rounds between 9 and 15 June, and the TTJA stated that the tightly competitive nature of the process ‘illustrates once again that the introduction of 5G services to the market is very important for communication companies.’ Telia’s new concession – including 130MHz of spectrum within the 3410MHz-3800MHz range – far exceeded its starting price of EUR1.597 million.

Telia’s success in the secondary 3.5GHz auction follows rival Elisa’s victory in the first licence sale in late-May, with the latter paying EUR7.206 million for its 5G permit after 57 rounds of bidding. The third and final licence auction will be announced by the regulator ‘no earlier than the next working day after receipt of the state fee and licence fee for the second frequency licence.’ Telia and Elisa will be ineligible to compete for the third 3.5GHz concession, leaving only one Estonian network operator, Tele2, to bid against Lithuanian cellco Bite.