The 5G network tender ended: companies will pay a total of NIS 265 million for the new frequencies

The tender for new frequencies, including frequencies for the 5th generation of cellular phones, ended on Wednesday evening without any significant surprises. The cellular companies will pay a total of NIS 265 million for the new frequencies, but will later be reimbursed according to the network's deployment rate.
The concern that arose at the beginning of the tender, according to which some of the companies would remain without frequencies, was removed with the publication of the results of the tender. All companies will receive frequencies that will allow the expansion of the 4th generation retirement as well as the beginning of the retirement of the 5th generation network. The price range is also relatively reasonable.
Pelephone will receive higher quality frequencies from competitors, while the joint network of Partner and HOT will pay a lower price and receive lower quality frequencies. The conduct of the competitors, Pelephone and Partner-HOT, resulted in the joint network of Cellcom, Golan and we4g paying the highest price but receiving relatively less attractive frequencies.
The tender was launched under the direction of the former director general of the Ministry of Communications, Nati Cohen, and ended today under the new minister, Yoaz Handel, and through the tenders committee under the management of the new director general, Liran Avishar Ben Horin.
"We are at the dawn of a new era. I congratulate the winning companies," Handel said. "The retirement of the 5th generation in the State of Israel will enable, among other things, the production of growth engines and will lead to the advancement of industry and high-tech and will open new horizons in the field of Internet of Things (IoT), which opens up new possibilities for citizens of Israel."
According to the results of the tender, the joint cellular network of Cellcom, Golan and we4g will pay the highest amount of NIS 115 million, followed by Pelephone with NIS 88 million, while the joint network of Partner and HOT will pay NIS 62 million to the state.
All companies will receive a similar amount of frequency bands in the main range of 700 MHz as well as a similar amount of frequencies in the wider range of 2700 MHz. These ranges are intended to expand the retirement of the 4th generation network.
Pelephone will receive higher-quality frequency bands in all frequency ranges, while Cellcom will receive one lower-quality frequency band, while Partner and HOT's network will receive frequencies that are considered "dirty" in the range of 2,700 and 3,500 MHz.
The companies will be required to pay NIS 260 million only in September 2022. Of this amount, NIS 200 million will be returned to the companies and an additional NIS 300 million will be returned to the companies according to the network's deployment rate - to encourage them to deploy quickly.