German court gives greenlight to 5G frequency auction rules

BERLIN, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The administrative Court in the German city of Cologne has rejected injunctions filed by several network operators regarding the 5G frequency auction regulations on Friday.

The responsible administrative Court in Cologne ruled that the auction rules as set up by the German Federal Network Agency(Bundesnetzagentur) would be legitimate.

In addition, there was a "considerable" public interest in the allocation of the 5G frequencies. The issues raised by the network operators regarding the auction rules would therefore have "less weight", the Court stated.

Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefonica as well as telecom company Freenet had recently filed injunctions against the auction regulations.

The large network operators considered it "unreasonable" that they were obliged by the Bundesnetzagentur to provide at least 98 percent of all German households as well as the most important motorways and railroads with 5G internet connections if they acquire such frequencies.

With the Court's decision, the Bundesnetzagentur was given greenlight to obligate the winning bidders to make their 5G networks available under certain conditions to smaller companies like Freenet.

The Cologne administrative Court ruled that the rejection of the injunctions could not be appealed. The auction for the 5G frequencies is scheduled to start as planned next Tuesday.