The Malta Communications Authority’s has assigned valuable mid-band 5G spectrum to the country’s three mobile operators.
The spectrum was assigned in the 3.6 GHz band, in which each operator received 100 MHz of contiguous spectrum.
Melita was the first operator to gain spectrum. It was awarded spectrum in the 3.6 – 3.7 GHz band in May. In August, Epic was awarded spectrum in the 3.6 – 3.7 GHz band. Finally, GO was awarded spectrum in the 3.7 – 3.8 GHz band in October. The annual spectrum license fee per 5 MHz unpaired spectrum in this band is €9,000.
In May, Melita was the first operator to launch commercial 5G services in the country. It claims to have nationwide 5G coverage.
Although this assignment was initially planned as an auction, the regulator chose to do conduct a direct assignment as the demand did not exceed supply.
The Malta Communications Authority has also made spectrum in the 700 MHz band and the 26 GHz band available. However, there hasn’t been an expression of interest from the market.
