Norway’s National Communications Authority (Nasjonal kommunikasjonsmyndighet, Nkom) has launched a public consultation on its plans to allocate new spectrum in the 700MHz and 2100MHz bands. Ahead of a sale process for the frequencies, which is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2019, the Nkom has confirmed it will make available a total of 2×30MHz in the 700MHz band and 2×15MHz in the 2100MHz band. With the 700MHz band currently used for digital TV broadcasting, it is expected that targeted frequencies will be released for use by mobile services from 1 November 2019.
In terms of the proposals put forward by the Nkom, these relate to the overall framework for the auction, including inter alia frequency limitations, coverage obligations, minimum prices for resources and the auction format itself. A deadline of 14 September 2018 has been set for submissions to the consultation. Meanwhile, detailed rules for the implementation of the auction itself will be subject to a separate public consultation, the Nkom noted, with this expected to get underway in Q1 2019.
