Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy opened a process through which prívate companies will be able to apply for private 5G licenses, the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry announced enterprises could apply for private 5G licences from November 21. Frequencies are available in the 3.7GHz to 3.8GHz range and cover limited areas.
The ministry also highlighted that industrial users can use the potential and technical advantages of 5G without having to resort to public mobile networks.
The department’s representative for digital economy and start-ups, Thomas Jarzombek, said: “Germany is one of the global pioneers in the private use of 5G. Here we lay the foundation for disruptive change. The local frequencies now allow companies to build their own network from day one.”
“So far, companies have been dependent on telecommunications providers. That’s a big step forward. It is even possible what was previously unthinkable: to build mobile networks, disconnected from the Internet. That offers a whole new level of security.”
According to previous reports, German car makers are looking to deploy their own 5G networks in order to start manufacturing self-driving cars by 2021.
Under such a scenario, car makers would not have to rely on German carriers’ future 5G network infrastructure. These companies are reluctant to entrust their digitized operations to network operators; the implementation of their own infrastructure would allow these companies to take care of their own data security and network reliability to avoid industrial espionage and hacker attacks.
According to the reports, BMW had already informed the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) that it is interested in operating localized, private 5G networks. Similar steps have been taken by Volkswagen and Daimler.
The head of the telecom regulator had also said that companies from several industrial sectors have already made inquiries about deploying 5G technologies.
In June, the German government announced the completion of the auction for 2 GHz and 3.6 GHz mobile spectrum after 52 days and 497 rounds of bidding.
The government confirmed it will raise a total of EUR 6.5 billion ($7.2 billion) for 420 megahertz of 5G spectrum.
The process will pave the way for the entrance of a fourth operator, 1&1 Drillisch, which spent a total of EUR 1.1 billion for 70 megahertz of 5G spectrum.
Deutsche Telekom committed to pay EUR 2.2 billion for 130 megahertz of spectrum in both 5G bands, while Vodafone will spend a total of EUR 1.9 billion to acquire 130 megahertz of 5G spectrum.
Meanwhile, Telefonica Deutschland committed to pay EUR 1.4 billion for a total of 90 megahertz of spectrum.
