Frequencies for 5G in Russia may be put up for auction

The Ministry of Digital Affairs is considering holding an auction for the right to use 5G frequencies in the second half of 2025, two senior sources in the cellular market told Izvestia. This was confirmed by an interlocutor in one of the organizations subordinate to the Ministry of Digital Affairs, as well as a specialist in radio frequency planning familiar with the situation.

Communication from space: via satellite, it will be possible to make calls from a regular smartphone

Who needs it and how the technology will work

According to one of Izvestia's sources, if the decision to hold auctions is made, frequencies in the range of 4.8-4.99 GHz will be put up for auction. For several years now, the authorities have been calling it the only possible fifth-generation cellular service for mass coverage of Russia: the 3.4-3.8 GHz frequencies optimal from the point of view of communications specialists in the Russian Federation are already occupied by communications facilities of other structures, including power ones, and 5G in higher bands cannot provide wide coverage of populated areas.

Operators, in turn, have repeatedly objected to the use of 4.8-4.99 GHz. In their opinion, it will be more expensive to cover the country with 5G using 4.8-4.99 GHz than using 3.4-3.8GHz, besides, much fewer phones support the higher range.

Leonid Konik, a partner at ComNews Research, considers holding frequency auctions to be a dubious idea. He does not rule out that one participant from the big four cellular companies will come to the auction, which will buy not so much scarce and necessary frequencies as the loyalty of the state at the initial price. The rest of the market participants will ignore the 5G auction for economic reasons, the expert predicts.

"It is enough to recall Europe, in several of the largest countries of which (Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, etc.) in 1999-2000, governments auctioned frequencies for 3G networks, collectively raising a record $190 billion. The downside of siphoning such a significant amount out of the pockets of cellular companies was the poor development of not only third—generation networks, but later LTE as well, which led Europe to lose competitiveness. The United States, Asian countries and other regions, unburdened by huge spending on frequencies, deployed LTE networks faster and received the growth hormone for the digital economy. And European mobile operators have been engaged in debt restructuring for many more years," the expert recalls.

Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:

Bargain with the locals: 5G frequencies may go under the hammer