Bonn, 27.08.2024 – Dr. Stephan Albers, Managing Director of the Bundesverband Breitbandkommunikation e.V. (BREKO), comments on the finding of illegality of the award and auction rules for the auction of 5G mobile frequencies held in 2019 by the Cologne Administrative Court:

“The ruling is a resounding slap in the face for the Federal Network Agency! Apparently, the management of this important regulatory authority at the time was biased, prejudiced against pro-competitive measures and anything but independent of political influence. The decision to impose only an ineffective negotiation requirement on mobile network operators in 2019 instead of a service provider obligation was therefore not made for objective reasons, but to protect Telekom, Vodafone and Telefónica from unwelcome competition.

Following this clear ruling, the service provider obligation, which was unlawfully prevented in 2019, must finally be introduced in the upcoming decision on frequency extension this year in order to enable real competition in mobile communications.

The vectoring decisions and the waving through of Telekom’s commitment model give rise to fears that the partiality, bias and political influence now confirmed by the Cologne Administrative Court was not limited to mobile telephony under the old management of the Federal Network Agency, but also affected the fixed network sector.

We are now calling on the new management of the Federal Network Agency to finally stand up for competition on the telecommunications market in an unbiased and impartial manner and to follow up with appropriate action: One year after the establishment of the monitoring body and over 450 reported cases, the strategic fiber optic dual expansion, which recently reached a new dimension with the announcement in Munich, must finally be decisively stopped. In addition, the Federal Network Agency must immediately develop a concept for copper-to-fiber optic migration in line with competition in the interests of consumers.”