BERLIN, June 13 (Xinhua) -- The German government has raised around 6.6 billion euros (7.5 billion U.S. dollars) by auctioning off the frequencies for the new mobile phone communications standard 5G, according to the German network agency (Bundesnetzagentur).
With 2.17 billion euros, Germany's largest network operator Deutsche Telekom acquired 13 out of 41 frequency packages and invested most among all bidders.
British Vodafone invested 1.9 billion euros and Spanish Telefonica 1.4 billion euros. Newcomer 1&1 Drillisch, a German network provider, which participated in a frequency auction for the first time, spent 1.1 billion euros on the 5G auction in Germany.
German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz was satisfied with the results of the auction. "The auction proceeds had been higher than we expected. That is good," he said in an interview with German public broadcaster ARD on Wednesday.
The money raised would be used for the German government's digital infrastructure fund, Scholz added. Seventy percent of the proceeds would go into fixed-line broadband network while the remaining 30 percent would be invested into the digitalization of German schools.
"We have more money at our disposal to promote the digitization of schools," emphasized Scholz, adding that the government would have "more money at its disposal to improve broadband expansion in those regions of Germany where it is not so good today."
Prior to the 5G auction, most observers had only expected auction proceeds of between 3 and 5 billion euros. Although this sum was now exceeded, the German Bundesnetzagentur raised over 50 billion euros for the 3G mobile communications standard in 2000.
Germany's government should now "specifically push ahead with the expansion of fiber optic cables and the supply of rural areas. Two thirds of all industrial jobs can be found in rural areas alone," commented Dieter Kempf, president of the Federation of German Industries (BDI).
The revenues from the auction must be invested "in the expansion of a powerful mobile broadband network so that Germany becomes the lead market for 5G, as promised in the coalition agreement of the current German government," noted Chrisitian Rusche, economist for industrial organization at the German Economic Institute (IW).
