After the holding of the consultation committee this Wednesday morning, it is now up to the IBPT telecom regulator to organize the spectral auctions.These will take place during the second quarter of 2022 (April-June).In the office of the Minister of Telecoms to Sutter, it is declared that operators will therefore be able to fully deploy their 5G networks in 2022.Today, this is only possible with provisional rights of use, but apart from Proximus, this remains limited to professional tests and boxes.

'This is very good news for our country: after many years of paralysis in this file, we finally realize what many bodies expected from us, not only consumer defense organizations, but also Europe and Europe and EuropeCompanies wishing to develop 5G applications, says to Sutter.

Fourth operator possible

The arrival of 5G was already clear in the government agreement last year.What had to be clear too was to know during spectral auctions, if there would be room for a fourth operator, and/or if the latter could be active both on the professional market and on the consumption market.

In both cases, the answer is yes: 'If during the auctions, a real price breaker had to appear, wishing to enter the mobile market as fourth and therefore new actor, this will be possible, which could havePositive effects on all Belgians who are currently paying high prices for their GSM 'subscription, according to Sutter.

This fourth actor could embark on the B2B and the B2C or only in the B2B.But in the latter case, the consultation committee will not impose a limit.In theory, therefore, several B2B actors will be able to present themselves and receive a license.

Winners and losers

This seems to be good news for Citymesh.The Mitch de Geest company had indeed clearly heard at the beginning of this year wanting to become a fourth operator on the professional market.Barely a few months later, we learned that the company was also interested in the consumer market.

If these projects are confirmed, our country will have for the first time in more than twenty years a fourth mobile network in its own right.Even if it is not excluded that other candidates still manifest themselves to obtain a license.The question is how many actors could do, because the spectral blocks to be auctioned are limited.

But this is also likely to upset the life of Proximus, Orange and Telenet (base), where it was declared in recent months that there is in fact not need a fourth network operator.In an underlying way, this means that four networks should now be installed and maintained (instead of three) for the same number of customers.In other words, the three current operators will have to invest just as much, but will probably lose customers who will turn to the fourth actor.

After the holding of the consultation committee this Wednesday morning, it is now up to the IBPT telecom regulator to organize the spectral auctions.These will take place during the second quarter of 2022 (April-June).In the office of the Minister of Telecoms to Sutter, it is declared that operators will therefore be able to fully deploy their 5G networks in 2022.Today, this is only possible with provisional rights of use, but apart from Proximus, this remains limited to professional tests and boxes.'This is very good news for our country: after many years of paralysis in this file, we finally realize what many bodies expected from us, not only consumer defense organizations, but also Europe and Europe and EuropeCompanies wishing to develop 5G applications, says to Sutter.The arrival of 5G was already clear in the government agreement last year.What had to be clear too was to know during spectral auctions, if there would be room for a fourth operator, and/or if the latter could be active both on the professional market and on the consumption market.In both cases, the answer is yes: 'If during the auctions, a real price breaker had to appear, wishing to enter the mobile market as fourth and therefore new actor, this will be possible, which could havePositive effects on all Belgians who are currently paying high prices for their GSM 'subscription, according to Sutter.This fourth actor could embark on the B2B and the B2C or only in the B2B.But in the latter case, the consultation committee will not impose a limit.In theory, therefore, several B2B actors will be able to present themselves and receive a license.This seems to be good news for Citymesh.The Mitch de Geest company had indeed clearly heard at the beginning of this year wanting to become a fourth operator on the professional market.Barely a few months later, we learned that the company was also interested in the consumer market.If these projects are confirmed, our country will have for the first time in more than twenty years a fourth mobile network in its own right.Even if it is not excluded that other candidates still manifest themselves to obtain a license.The question is how many actors could do, because the spectral blocks to be auctioned are limited.But this is also likely to upset the life of Proximus, Orange and Telenet (base), where it was declared in recent months that there is in fact not need a fourth network operator.In an underlying way, this means that four networks should now be installed and maintained (instead of three) for the same number of customers.In other words, the three current operators will have to invest just as much, but will probably lose customers who will turn to the fourth actor.