NEWS ARTICLE

Entropia selected for introduction of new 5G network to Belgium


Brussels March 24, 2020 - BIPT publishes the list of selected candidates: Cegeka, Entropia , Orange, Proximus and Telenet, for the granting of provisional user rights in the radio frequency band 3600-3800 MHz provided for 5G. These user rights allow these operators to enable the deployment of 5G in Belgium. BIPT allocates radio frequency bands to operators in order to make optimal use of the radio spectrum. Operators can use this to offer mobile services to the end user.

As part of the European roll-out of 5G technology, a number of radio frequency bands have been designated to be made available to the market. More specifically, this concerns the 700 MHz and 3600 MHz bands, which must be made available before 30 June 2020 (700 MHz) and 31 December 2020 (3600 MHz) respectively. The draft decisions and draft legislation for this multi-band auction have been blocked since the fall of the government due to the fact that no agreement was reached within the Consultation Committee.

To enable the introduction of 5G in our country, BIPT has worked out a provisional solution. For example, we want to grant the 3.6-3.8 GHz frequency band via provisional rights of use on the basis of the telecom law, which gives BIPT the option of granting provisional rights of use for radio spectrum for which there is no legal framework for the allocation procedure. For example, operators can already prepare themselves on the basis of a number of 5G commercial applications in the run-up to the future auction. To this end, BIPT published a notice on 30 January 2020 calling for candidates who wish to obtain provisional user rights for an initial deployment of 5G in Belgium. The candidates had until February 28, 2020 to submit their application.

In the 3600-3800 MHz band, a total of 200 MHz radio spectrum is available. So it is possible to assign 40MHz to each of the five candidates considered. These rights of use will remain valid until rights of use are awarded through a classic auction procedure (based on a new RD regarding the band 3400-3800 MHz).

BIPT (Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications) has been the Belgian regulator of the postal and telecommunications sectors since 1991. It was given an independent statute of its own in 2003.

BIPT is the federal regulatory body responsible for regulating the electronic communications market, the postal market, the electromagnetic spectrum of radio frequencies and the radio and television broadcasting in the Brussels-Capital Region.

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