New country profile charts Poland’s struggle to release key 5G bands

As an EU Member State, Poland is supposed to have already made available the 700 MHz and 3.5 GHz bands. But efforts by the regulator, the UKE, have been thwarted by COVID-19 and coordination issues with the Russian Federation. Even though Poland has enlisted the help of the European Commission, the 700 MHz band may still only be cleared by June 2022. The UKE currently expects to hold an auction of the 3.5 GHz band by August 2021. The government will surely hope it is successful, as its state budget relies on projected revenues of PLN 1.914 billion (€423 million) from that award. In a new country profile, we explain efforts to release the two bands, and mobile operators' spectrum priorities for the future. We also explain the operators' current spectrum positions and tell some of the country's recent spectrum policy history. The profile is available to Spectrum Research Service subscribers and can be accessed here.