Recently, German legislature has approved the reassignment of terrestrial television frequencies to wireless Internet services (the digital dividend). Heise news now reports that the German telecoms regulator (the Bundesnetzagentur) has started speculating about potential obligations for this frequency range.
As the 800 MHz band is useful in both rural and urban areas, the regulator wants to ensure that it is not only used for cheaply covering large cities while rural areas are forgotten. Therefore, they are thinking about mandating that the band may only be used in urban areas once 80% of rural cities with less than 5000 people or currently uncovered zones defined by the government are covered with a minimal speed of 1 MBit/s (user peak speed?). An interesting move to ensure the intent under which the frequencies were freed up will be met.
Now let's see how quickly the frequencies will be auctioned.
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