Almost three years later, one thing is clear: the 5G frequency auction that took place in 2020 strengthened the position of the three big operators and helped solidify the Czech mobile market for many years. Former Super Minister Karel Havlíček, who pushed through the resulting auction model, can credit this result. He also helped himself by brutally interfering with the functioning of the Czech Telecommunications Office (ČTÚ), which was controlled by one of the worst heads in its history for several years because of him.
The infamous impact of the auction was confirmed by the recent sale of frequencies in the 3.5 GHz band, auctioned by the Kaprain group, to T-Mobil. The PODA operator also got rid of its frequencies in the 3.7 GHz band earlier. The Big Three thus eventually acquired all the frequencies that the state auctioned in 2020, with the exception of the 20 MHz block in the 3.5 GHz band, which is still held by Nordic Telecom.
Havlíček’s earlier promises that the 5G auction would bring in several smaller operators, who would increase competition on the market and contribute to lower prices thanks to so-called national roaming, simply turned out to be completely wrong. Not that we didn’t expect this result at Lupa…
Friday, the 13th
The 5G frequency auction was announced for one specific company, explained in 2019 by Minister of Industry and Trade Havlíček, why the upcoming auction conditions must change significantly (it was clear from the context that it was Nordic Telecom). We have information from the secret services about the non-standard course of preparation for the auction, he also claimed (surprisingly, nothing of the sort was confirmed). Under this pretext, he ousted the respected Jaromír Novák from the head of the Council of the Czech Telecommunications Authority (ČTÚ) and pushed his horse – the obedient Hana Továrková – into his place. But under her leadership, the preparation of an important auction turned into a farce.
Within a few months, Továrková was able to move from Havlíček’s thesis that “there are no interested parties in the 700 MHz band” to the claim that “there is a significant number of entities that may be interested in them” and rearranged the conditions in such a way that, in the end, the band-wide frequencies could not be of interest to anyone other than the big three network operators.
Friday the thirteenth of Czech telecommunications has arrived. On November 13, 2020, the ČTÚ announced the result of the auction and to the world, wonder: the 700 MHz band, which theoretically could have been used for the construction of the fourth nationwide network in the Czech Republic, was shared by T-Mobile, O2 and Vodafone without much of a fight and at basically asking prices.
In the 3.5 GHz band, the big three were joined by Nordic Telecom and Kaprain (then through the operator CentroNet). And thanks to the conditions of the auction, the third smaller operator PODA also got the right to national roaming in the O2 network.
Towels in the ring
Right after the auction, however, Havlíček let his deputy Petr Oček publicly praise the result of the auction. Given that the media then wrote more about the debacle, the ministry had to pay for these odes order a paid article in ČTK. Továrková also joined in, promising that tariffs will be cheaper by at least 15 to 20 percent within a year.
However, negotiations on national roaming dragged on for several years to no avail, and the suspicion that no new nationwide operator would emerge in the end was reinforced by the fact that the three smaller players fundamentally refused to discuss the possible launch of their services (with the occasional exception).
The PODA company and the Kaprain holding finally threw in the towel. At least in the case of Karel Pražák’s company, it seems that the frequency was bought directly on speculation, because according to the available information, the preparation of the future network has not even started in more than two years. Nordic Telecom is silent on its plans.
How prices have changed
And how has the market changed so far? Let us remind you that at the beginning of 2019, customers in the Czech Republic could purchase 500 MB of data for unlimited calls and SMS for 500 per month (without obligation), according to the price offers of major operators.
In the autumn of the same year, a big change took place: first T-Mobile and then gradually the other two network operators came up with the first tariffs containing unlimited data. Five hundred crowns was still enough for 1.5 GB of data (plus unlimited calls and SMS), but one thousand crowns per month could already pay for a tariff with 16 GB of data. A complete unlimited offer (calls, SMS, data) without speed or other limits could be purchased from approx. 1,600 CZK per month (plus fees).
Today, less than four years later, for around five hundred CZK you can still have between 500 MB and 2 GB of data for unlimited calls and SMS (and you can get 4 GB for less than CZK 600). Unlimited data with a reduced speed starts at prices between 900 and 1000 CZK, and packages with unslowed unlimited data start a little above 1300 CZK per month.
It can be seen that the situation does not change with cheap tariffs, the five-hundred-euro packages are a relic of the past, and network operators have moved the new minimum to CZK 600 per month. For more expensive tariffs and packages with unlimited data, we can observe the addition of GB or speed increases and more or less stagnant prices.
Simply put: no big shift has taken place since 2019, new competition won’t come thanks to Havlíčk’s (and Továrková’s) botched auction, and the big three continue to have everything firmly in their hands.
2023-07-24 04:31:53
#confirmation #Havlíčeks #fiasco #cemented #mobile #market #competition #Lupa.cz
