Govt ditches 5G auction, opts for direct allocations

Tue, 12 May 2020

The government has given up on a planned auction of radio spectrum to get 5G up and running as soon as possible, and will instead offer allocations to Spark New Zealand, Two Degrees Mobile and wholesaler Dense Air. The government had planned to auction the early access 3.5 gigahertz band spectrum but kyboshed that when the covid-19 pandemic hit, disrupting the economy. Today, the radio spectrum management unit of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment said it would instead offer direct allocations: 60 megahertz each to Spark and...

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