Estonia, Good for Business, Internet, Telecomunications

"The drawing up of a draft regulation necessary for the organization of a public competition is in its final stages and the minister will sign it by the end of next week at the latest. A public competition can be expected at the beginning of 2019 and we will then announce the participation conditions, the starting price and the like. The frequency range 3,410-3,800 MHz will be put for sale at the public competition and all communications companies, from Estonia and elsewhere, can participate," told Emilie Toomela, spokesperson for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.

The technology portal Geenius.ee has previously written that the state is expecting to earn at least 5.5 mln euros from the auction, while, according to an optimistic forecast, the proceeds may even reach 30 mln euros. At that, altogether three different frequency licenses will be put up for sale.

Finnish telecommunications company Elisa announced on Wednesday it has taken a loan amounting to 100 mln euros from the Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) to develop its 5G networks in Finland and in Estonia. "We want the state of Estonia to be at the forefront in developing 5G mobile networks along with Finland. In the first half of next year, the first auction of 5G frequency areas will already be launched and the investment in question shows that Elisa is serious about developing a 5G network in both Estonia and Finland," told Taavi Teder, media communications specialist at Elisa.

"So far, Elisa has been using the test license received from the Technical Regulatory Authority, with which we also established Estonia's first 5G network in the Rotermanni Quarter last summer and where we also carried out the world's first 5G video call between two neighboring countries, Estonia and Finland," Teder said.