Belgium’s Consultative Committee has failed once again to reach agreement on the granting of 5G licenses, Telecoms Minister Philippe De Backer said on Wednesday morning.
Speaking just after Wednesday’s meeting of the Committee, made up of representatives of the Federal Government and the governments of Belgium’s communities and regions, a visibly disappointed De Backer described the lack of agreement as “regrettable”. It “makes us lose time for the deployment of 5G,” he added.
The issue had already come up for discussion at a Committee meeting in February, but the various parties had failed to agree on the distribution of income from the licenses. The same occurred on Wednesday morning.
The 80/20 ratio used during the last licensing procedure no longer suits the federated bodies, which are asking for a larger share of the revenue.
The media sector falls within the purview of the regions, and the Federal Government needs to reach an agreement with them before it can launch the procedure of issuing licenses, otherwise the matter will be shelved until new federal and regional governments are formed after elections in May.
With its higher bandwidth, 5G technology enables service providers to reduce connection times, thus speeding up communication.
The European Commission wants each EU member State to offer 5G coverage in at least one city by 2020 and in all urban areas by 2025.
