Spectrum auctions held in June in Germany raised just over €5 billion for the government on 270MHz of spectrum across four bands from the three winners: Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom and Telefonica. The auction included a 2×5 MHz block in the 1800 MHz band after successful lobbying by the GSMA.
The auction also marked the first time in Europe that 700MHz spectrum was on offer. This spectrum, due to be released for use as early as 2017 in Germany, can be considered the second wave of digital dividend bandwidth after 800MHz.