Berlin, June 19, 2023 – The German Broadband Association (BREKO) comments on today’s decision by the Advisory Board of the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) entitled “Securing mobile coverage and creating expansion incentives” as follows:

“BREKO welcomes the fact that the Advisory Council of the BNetzA has today spoken out in favor of strong competition with regard to the next allocation of mobile frequencies. The Advisory Board’s decision is an important signal for more competition in the German mobile communications market. It makes it clear that politicians also do not consider the ‘negotiation requirement’ imposed on the established mobile network operators in the last frequency allocation in 2019 to be sufficient to ensure fair competition in mobile communications. We now expect the Federal Network Agency to take the clear vote of the advisory board seriously when determining the framework conditions for the next frequency allocation and to counteract the existing competition deficits with an effective MVNO and service provider obligation.

The results of a study recently published by SBR-net Consulting on behalf of BREKO and 1&1 Mobilfunk also show that the German mobile communications market has drastic competitive deficits.”