The company brought the spectrum in the Economic Ministry’s auction for €198.1 million and will be paid by 20 equal annual installments at an interest rate of 2.35%.
Vodafone Spain says that it will use the 3700MHz spectrum to deliver 5G services, enabling gigabit speeds and lower latency to enhance applications including connected vehicles and robotics, industrial automated systems and virtual and augmented reality.
The company has acquired the spectrum on a twenty year term and adds to its existing spectrum holdings: 800MHz 2 x 10MHz 2 x 10MHz 900MHz 2 x 10MHz 2 x 10MHz 1800MHz 2 x 20MHz 2 x 20MHz 2100MHz 2 x 15 + 5MHz 2 x 15 + 5MHz 2600MHz 2 x 20 + 20MHz 2 x 20 + 20MHz 3700MHz 90MHz 90MHz.
To date, Spain's 5G spectrum auction has raised over €400 million for the Spanish government in its mission to rollout 5G services. Spain's other big three operators have yet to confirm how much spectrum they have acquired.
Earlier today the company announced that is it going to start 5G trials in the cities of Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao, Malaga and Seville. The operator said it is going to use 3.7GHz band for the pre-commercial 5G non-standalone (NSA) tests and has already begun installing more than 30 antennas in partnership with Huawei across those six cities.
In addition, Vodafone and Tunisie Telecom have entered into a new partner market agreement for Tunisia, making it the first such partnership for Vodafone in North Africa. Under the terms of the three-year, non-equity agreement, Vodafone will provide strategic and operational support in a range of areas including: enterprise, consumer, technology and procurement.
