{"id":14536,"date":"2026-03-19T11:09:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T11:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/?p=14536"},"modified":"2026-03-19T11:09:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T11:09:34","slug":"mwc-ministerial-programme-spectrum-licensing-and-pricing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/mwc-ministerial-programme-spectrum-licensing-and-pricing\/","title":{"rendered":"MWC Ministerial Programme: Spectrum Licensing and Pricing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Each year, MWC Barcelona showcases the latest advances in technology, where emerging trends in mobile innovation are shaping the future. Across the exhibition halls, extended reality devices, autonomous vehicles, and robotics powered by artificial intelligence demonstrate a growing appetite for data. Amidst this atmosphere, a consistent message flows from the Congress floor to the Ministerial Programme: the need for additional spectrum at the right price and conditions to deliver these new technologies. As governments and regulators gather to discuss the path forward, important questions arise: when and how will countries respond to this challenge? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A shifting policy trend<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"A<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Four<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Six<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ensuring that spectrum is accessible when needed and at prices that promote investment is vital to meet increasing network demand, prompting some countries to revise their strategies in recent years. There are many examples of this. Costa Rica\u2019s 2025 multi\u2011band 5G auction linked spectrum fees to investment, allowing operators to pay up to 90% of their obligations through rural 4G\/5G deployments that expanded coverage across hundreds of underserved districts. Since 2021, Brazil has been able to rapidly grow its 5G networks and adoption because of longer licence terms and practical coverage obligations which illustrate a policy approach focussed on expanding connectivity rather than prioritising high upfront fees.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, Spain extended licenses for long durations without additional costs, obligations or charges beyond existing annual fees. Some countries, like Austria and Colombia, have given operators a greater role in shaping obligations so they can extend coverage in a way that is economically sustainable and as a discount during the auction process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new era of assignments<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"Panellists<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Panellists<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Five<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Numerous countries have\u00a0observed\u00a0the positive outcomes\u00a0of\u00a0assignment policy\u00a0changes\u00a0and are now adopting similar approaches.\u00a0In South\u00a0and Southeast\u00a0Asia, we are beginning to see this trend manifest as India begins to focus on how to\u00a0design\u00a0future auctions\u00a0to promote investment\u00a0rather\u00a0than attach\u00a0unrealistic\u00a0obligations on mobile operators. Meanwhile, Bangladesh has outlined plans to reduce prices for future auctions, while\u00a0Pakistan\u00a0and Vietnam\u00a0successfully showed that lower reserve prices can lead to\u00a0optimal\u00a0auctions.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The theme of lower prices continues as countries such as\u00a0the Dominican Republic,\u00a0Mozambique,\u00a0Nigeria\u00a0and\u00a0Sierra Leone have signalled that they intend to assign new spectrum for mobile with lower prices and balanced obligations. Peru has also\u00a0recently\u00a0awarded\u00a0the 3.5 GHz band to support its 5G rollout,\u00a0reducing upfront fees\u00a0in exchange\u00a0of\u00a0commitments.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposed European Digital Networks Act also shakes-up how spectrum is licensed and priced. The Act includes provisions for spectrum licences that are indefinite by default, coupled with an award design that encourages network investment and a common methodology for reductions in both annual fees and reserve prices as a result. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MWC Ministerial Programme brought countries together to discuss these solutions and highlight best practice. As the conversations underline, the question is not only whether more spectrum is needed, but how it is licensed and priced in practice. The approaches seen in Costa Rica, Brazil, Spain and elsewhere suggest that longer and more predictable licence terms, proportionate fees, and balanced obligations can make it easier for operators to focus on coverage and network investment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This new era of assignments is characterised by regulators increasingly adopting transparent processes and innovative renewal mechanisms to align with national connectivity goals. This policy shift can help ensure that the innovations on the MWC show floor can translate into better connectivity in everyday life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more spectrum insights from MWC26 here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ministerial Programme\u00a0brought countries together to discuss spectrum pricing and licensing best practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":14549,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1692,4060,4061],"tags":[],"algolia_discover_type":[4026],"class_list":["post-14536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-spectrum-licensing","category-spectrum-pricing","algolia_discover_type-article"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMWC Ministerial Programme: Spectrum Licensing and Pricing - Spectrum<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Ministerial Programme\u00a0brought countries together to discuss spectrum pricing and licensing best practice.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/mwc-ministerial-programme-spectrum-licensing-and-pricing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MWC Ministerial Programme: Spectrum Licensing and Pricing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Ministerial Programme\u00a0brought countries together to discuss spectrum pricing and licensing best practice.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/mwc-ministerial-programme-spectrum-licensing-and-pricing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spectrum\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gsma\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-19T11:09:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-19T11:09:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Spectrum_RT_696x232.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"232\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"iivanov@gsma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@GSMA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@GSMA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"iivanov@gsma.com\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"MWC Ministerial Programme: Spectrum Licensing and Pricing - Spectrum","description":"The Ministerial Programme\u00a0brought countries together to discuss spectrum pricing and licensing best practice.\u00a0","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/mwc-ministerial-programme-spectrum-licensing-and-pricing\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"MWC Ministerial Programme: Spectrum Licensing and Pricing","og_description":"The Ministerial Programme\u00a0brought countries together to discuss spectrum pricing and licensing best practice.\u00a0","og_url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/mwc-ministerial-programme-spectrum-licensing-and-pricing\/","og_site_name":"Spectrum","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gsma\/","article_published_time":"2026-03-19T11:09:22+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-03-19T11:09:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":696,"height":232,"url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Spectrum_RT_696x232.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"iivanov@gsma.com","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@GSMA","twitter_site":"@GSMA","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"iivanov@gsma.com","Estimated reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/mwc-ministerial-programme-spectrum-licensing-and-pricing\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/mwc-ministerial-programme-spectrum-licensing-and-pricing\/"},"author":{"name":"iivanov@gsma.com","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/#\/schema\/person\/4550f7d2210fcacdee4540444eee8a9c"},"headline":"MWC Ministerial Programme: Spectrum Licensing and Pricing","datePublished":"2026-03-19T11:09:22+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-19T11:09:34+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/mwc-ministerial-programme-spectrum-licensing-and-pricing\/"},"wordCount":648,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/mwc-ministerial-programme-spectrum-licensing-and-pricing\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Spectrum_RT_696x232.png","articleSection":["Blog","Spectrum licensing","Spectrum pricing"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/mwc-ministerial-programme-spectrum-licensing-and-pricing\/","url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/mwc-ministerial-programme-spectrum-licensing-and-pricing\/","name":"MWC Ministerial Programme: Spectrum Licensing and Pricing - Spectrum","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/mwc-ministerial-programme-spectrum-licensing-and-pricing\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/mwc-ministerial-programme-spectrum-licensing-and-pricing\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Spectrum_RT_696x232.png","datePublished":"2026-03-19T11:09:22+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-19T11:09:34+00:00","description":"The Ministerial Programme\u00a0brought countries together to discuss spectrum pricing and licensing best practice.\u00a0","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/mwc-ministerial-programme-spectrum-licensing-and-pricing\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/mwc-ministerial-programme-spectrum-licensing-and-pricing\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/mwc-ministerial-programme-spectrum-licensing-and-pricing\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Spectrum_RT_696x232.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Spectrum_RT_696x232.png","width":696,"height":232,"caption":"A group of people in business attire sit around a large conference table with screens in the centre."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/mwc-ministerial-programme-spectrum-licensing-and-pricing\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MWC Ministerial Programme: Spectrum Licensing and Pricing"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/","name":"Spectrum","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/#organization","name":"GSMA","url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/GSMA-Logo-Red-RGB_square.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/GSMA-Logo-Red-RGB_square.jpg","width":600,"height":600,"caption":"GSMA"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gsma\/","https:\/\/x.com\/GSMA","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/gsmaonline\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/12380","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/GSMAOnline","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/GSMA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/#\/schema\/person\/4550f7d2210fcacdee4540444eee8a9c","name":"iivanov@gsma.com","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/db2aec7235ec15b6909c845f5c8b0998a05c77dc7a4eca1cb149c4f0f8c17bef?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/db2aec7235ec15b6909c845f5c8b0998a05c77dc7a4eca1cb149c4f0f8c17bef?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/db2aec7235ec15b6909c845f5c8b0998a05c77dc7a4eca1cb149c4f0f8c17bef?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"iivanov@gsma.com"}}]}},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Spectrum_RT_696x232.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14536"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14550,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14536\/revisions\/14550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14536"},{"taxonomy":"algolia_discover_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/connectivity-for-good\/spectrum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/algolia_discover_type?post=14536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}