The Polish 700 and 800 MHz Spectrum Auction: Insights and Global Lessons
Poland’s final low-band spectrum auction marks a pivotal moment in Europe’s 5G rollout, offering key lessons in auction design, cross-border coordination, and strategic spectrum management.
In March 2025, Poland’s Office of Electronic Communications (UKE) concluded a landmark spectrum auction, allocating six 2 × 5 MHz blocks in the 700 MHz band and one 2 × 5 MHz block in the 800 MHz band. As one of the final major low-band auctions in the European Union, this event serves not only as a national milestone but also as a capstone to Europe’s coordinated decade-long reallocation of sub-1 GHz spectrum to support next-generation mobile services, particularly 5G.
Key Auction Outcomes
- Auction Structure: The auction followed a Simultaneous Multi-Round Ascending (SMRA) format and concluded in just two days with winning bids only 3.6% above the reserve prices, suggesting a low-competition environment or effective price anchoring.
- Operators and Allocations: Four major operators participated, with Orange and P4 securing two blocks each, while T-Mobile and Polkomtel secured just one. This outcome raised questions about potential strategic bidding miscalculations or deliberate cost-saving tactics, especially given that a single 2×5 MHz block is generally viewed as suboptimal for 5G deployment.
- Price Uniformity: Despite potential interference differences between blocks, prices remained nearly uniform, pointing to limited bidder differentiation between spectrum positions.
Strategic and Technical Considerations
- Exposure Risk: The use of 2×5 MHz lots increased the risk of operators being “stranded” with an unprofitable allocation if they failed to secure adjacent blocks. This scenario likely affected T-Mobile and Polkomtel, and underscores the need for careful auction design to minimize such risks.
- Cross-Border Interference: Ongoing usage of adjacent frequencies by broadcasters in Ukraine and Belarus presents interference risks. While Poland has pursued coordination with Ukraine, Belarus remains a significant challenge.
- Deployment Risks: T-Mobile’s combined holding of 700 and 800 MHz may lead to passive intermodulation (PIM) interference, complicating efforts to deploy advanced low-band MIMO technologies without additional engineering mitigation.
Broader European and Global Lessons
Drawing from this and similar European auctions, the report outlines several critical insights for spectrum regulators and telecom operators worldwide:
- Market Readiness Matters: Spectrum should be released in line with device availability, market maturity, and network readiness to ensure successful integration into existing and future mobile infrastructure.
- Holistic Spectrum Management: Regulators are encouraged to adopt a band-agnostic approach to sub-1 GHz spectrum—700, 800, and 900 MHz are increasingly seen as interchangeable, allowing for more flexible and efficient network planning.
- Reserve Pricing Strategy: High reserve prices have led to auction failures in some countries (e.g., Romania). Poland’s moderate pricing approach is presented as a model for striking a balance between revenue generation and market viability.
- Support for Secondary Markets: The ability to trade or lease spectrum post-auction (as seen in the UK and Netherlands) allows operators to optimize holdings and avoid inefficiencies from suboptimal auction outcomes.
- Creative Rural Coverage Policies: As deep rural coverage is costly and prone to natural monopolies, solutions such as national roaming agreements or coverage-linked discounts are recommended.
- Technology Neutrality: Licenses should permit spectrum use across current and future technologies (4G, 5G, 6G), promoting long-term efficiency and adaptability.
Other insights
Spectrum Renewal: A Framework for Spectrum Valuation and Pricing
Mobile connectivity supports economic development, social participation and digital innovation across every modern economy. Yet the performance and resilience of this ecosystem depend on a scarce national asset – radio spectrum. As many countries approach key licence renewal milestones for the original IMT 4G spectrum bands that were issued 10 to 20 years ago, the question of how to value spectrum and how to determine an appropriate renewal price takes on increasing importance in the case where the spectrum is being renewed via an administrative or hybrid auction process.
Leveraging Terrestrial Mobile Spectrum for D2D capacity
This article was first published in the GTPRN 2026 Newsletter, February 2026. It provides a fresh perspective on the merits of leveraging terrestrial mobile spectrum for D2D capacity. Terrestrial mobile spectrum could be used to substantially increase D2D capacity precisely where it is needed the most given that in 90% of the globe’s surface there is no shortage of spectrum.
Navigating Spectrum Licence Renewal: Lessons from Australia
Australia’s spectrum licence renewal process shows how operators can align regulatory engagement with commercial strategy. This case study highlights Coleago’s role in helping Optus secure optimal outcomes, from evidence-based submissions to spectrum planning for 5G and 6G.
Tanzania’s 3.6 GHz Spectrum Auction: Key Insights and Lessons for Future 5G Awards
Tanzania’s recent 3.6 GHz spectrum auction marks a major step toward 5G, but its design choices raise important questions about efficiency and fairness. Coleago’s latest white paper reviews the TCRA auction and shares key lessons for regulators and operators shaping future 5G spectrum awards.
Implications of a Full Transition from DTT to IPTV in the UK by 2035
In May this year, Coleago published a report prepared for the UK Spectrum Policy Forum which provides a technical and strategic assessment of future options for use of the UHF band (470–694 MHz) in the United Kingdom beyond 2034.
The European 5G Fairytale
For years, European policymakers and telecom operators have touted the impressive figure: “89% 5G coverage of populated areas.” On paper, this paints a picture of near-ubiquitous, high-speed connectivity. Scratch the surface however, and the reality looks quite different.