The Dutch government allocated both existing and new frequencies through the auction, which started on 29 June, to meet the ever-growing demand for data.
A total of 26 licences with a term of 20 years were auctioned for the three bands. A second high-speed mobile communications frequency auction will take place in early 2022 for the 3.5 Gigahertz frequency band.
To safeguard market competition, measures had been taken to ensure all three telcos had access to no more than 40% of the available frequencies, including all current licences held by the various providers.
Mona Keijzer (pictured), state secretary for economic affairs and climate policy, said: “Mobile communication is an important basis for future digital innovations in care, agriculture, education, manufacturing and mobility. The Netherlands is a worldwide digital leader and aims to maintain this position by meeting companies, organisations and consumers' urgent need for fast, reliable and secure mobile communications. The outcome of this auction will also ensure sufficient competition in our telecoms market until 2040, delivering quality, innovation and reasonable prices for consumers and businesses.”
The auction requires KPN, T-Mobile and VodafoneZiggo to achieve mobile coverage across 98% of the surface area of each Dutch municipality, and further standards have been implemented for minimum speeds to consumers and businesses.
The Dutch government also took the chance to reassure consumers once again, that 5G has no proven negative health impacts. In Keijzer’s letter to parliament she wrote: “The prevailing international exposure thresholds for electromagnetic fields (EMF) were reiterated and elaborated in March 2020 on the basis of current scientific knowledge. These thresholds provide an extremely generous safety margin. The actual level of exposure measured by Dutch regulatory body Radiocommunications Agency (AT) is generally 10 times lower than the prevailing thresholds. The most stringent threshold is set at 28 Volt per meter (V/m). Most AT measurements average between 0.5 and 3 V/m. AT will continue to monitor compliance with these thresholds.”
With regards to equipment provision, no mention was made of specific suppliers, however, Keijzer did highlight that measures had been taken to prevent against “espionage and sabotage”.
Her letter continued to state that critical network components must be “exclusively sourced from trusted suppliers” and that measures could be taken to “compel telecom providers to exclude certain suppliers from providing critical network components.” Further measures taken by the country are aligned with those set out by the EU.
Antenna provision is projected to increase by 10% over the coming years, with local authorities expected to play an important role in “the realisation and maintenance of this infrastructure”.
