Italy has launched a new spectrum auction covering the lower 26 GHz frequency band as the country seeks to accelerate investment in 5G, fixed wireless access, private networks and ultra-high-capacity broadband services.
The Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy published the auction notice in Italy’s Official Gazette on August 26, 2026. The sale covers spectrum between 24.25 GHz and 26.5 GHz and includes five national frequency lots and 42 regional and provincial lots.
Based on the minimum prices specified for available lot, the spectrum auction has a combined reserve value of approximately €180.08 million. This is substantially lower than the €6.55 billion generated by Italy’s landmark 5G spectrum auction in 2018.
The lower valuation reflects the different economics of millimetre-wave spectrum. While frequencies such as 700 MHz provide wide coverage, 26 GHz spectrum offers considerable capacity over shorter distances and is better suited to dense urban zones, industrial sites, transport hubs, enterprise campuses and fixed wireless broadband deployments.
Italy Offers Five National and 42 Regional Spectrum Lots
The Italian 26 GHz spectrum auction rules divide the available frequencies into 200 MHz Time Division Duplex blocks.
The 24.25–26.5 GHz band contains a 50 MHz guard band between 24.25 GHz and 24.3 GHz, followed by 11 nominal blocks of 200 MHz between 24.3 GHz and 26.5 GHz. Seven blocks — B1, B2, B3, B4, B7, B8 and B9—are included in the assignment process.
Italy will offer five national lots, designated L3 to L7. Each national licence includes 200 MHz of spectrum and carries a minimum price of €25.726 million. The five national lots therefore have a combined reserve value of approximately €128.63 million.
Another 42 lots will be allocated across 21 geographical areas. These comprise two 200 MHz lots for each of Italy’s 19 regions and two lots each for the autonomous provinces of Bolzano and Trento.
The combined minimum value of the regional lots is approximately €51.45 million. Including the national licences, the complete auction starts at about €180.08 million.
Lombardia Spectrum Carries Highest Regional Price
Regional reserve prices are based principally on the population and commercial value of each geographical market.
Lombardia has the highest minimum price at €4.398 million for each 200 MHz lot. Lazio follows at €2.492 million, ahead of Campania at €2.429 million, Veneto at €2.121 million and Sicilia at €2.082 million.
Other significant reserve prices include €1.956 million for Emilia-Romagna, €1.858 million for Piemonte, €1.685 million for Puglia and €1.597 million for Toscana.
Smaller markets carry considerably lower starting prices. Each Valle d’Aosta lot has a reserve price of €53,465, while Molise starts at €124,552. The minimum prices are €236,962 for Bolzano, €239,647 for Trento, €228,692 for Basilicata and €371,123 for Umbria.
The remaining starting prices are €520,941 in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, €552,754 in Abruzzo, €645,794 in Marche, €660,170 in Liguria, €677,341 in Sardegna and €796,737 in Calabria.
Applications Open on September 23
Companies must submit applications between 9:00 a.m. on September 23 and 11:59 p.m. on September 25, 2026. Applications must be filed electronically in Italian using Italy’s certified-email system.
Approved participants can submit their initial spectrum bids between 9:00 a.m. on November 2 and 11:59 p.m. on November 4, 2026.
If multiple companies compete for the same category of spectrum, the government will conduct a simultaneous multiple-round bidding process. New bids can increase by as much as 50 percent over the highest winning offer during the relevant round.
Participation is open to eligible companies with the technical and commercial ability to use the frequencies and provide electronic communications services. European Economic Interest Groupings, temporary business groupings and consortia can also apply, subject to the auction’s ownership and financial requirements.
Successful bidders must maintain fully paid share capital equal to at least 10 percent of the investments required to meet their deployment commitments.
26 GHz Licences Start in 2029
The spectrum rights will become usable on January 1, 2029, and remain valid for 15 years.
Under the auction framework, licences may receive a five-year extension. They can subsequently be renewed once for up to another 10 years, subject to European Union regulations, Italian law and any future requirement to refarm the band.
The potentially long licence period is designed to give operators sufficient time to recover investments in radios, small cells, fibre backhaul, antennas, edge-computing infrastructure and enterprise connectivity platforms.
Winning bidders can pay their spectrum charges in three annual instalments. They must also pay the Ugo Bordoni Foundation a fee equivalent to 2.5 percent of the final bid value, excluding value-added tax, for its role in supporting the auction and the technical administration of the band.
Italy Imposes 400 MHz Spectrum Cap
The auction includes caps intended to prevent excessive concentration of 26 GHz spectrum.
A participant can acquire a maximum of 400 MHz, or two 200 MHz lots, at the national level. No more than one of those lots can come from the reserved national category.
An operator’s combined holdings across the lower and upper 26 GHz bands cannot exceed 600 MHz nationally. Companies obtaining national lower-band spectrum — or already holding national rights in the upper 26.5–27.5 GHz band — cannot acquire regional lots.
A regional participant cannot obtain licences covering more than six regions or areas representing more than 30 percent of Italy’s population. Its holdings within an individual region are capped at 400 MHz.
Two national lots, L3 and L4, are reserved for designated priority operators. One of the two lots available in each of the 21 regional areas is similarly reserved for regional priority operators. The remaining licences are open to priority operators, other eligible companies and new entrants.
Operators Must Deploy Services Within 36 Months
Successful bidders must install networks and begin using their assigned spectrum within 36 months of the frequencies becoming available.
National licence holders will need to demonstrate use in every Italian province. Regional winners must activate services in all provinces falling within their licensed geographical area.
Qualifying deployments can include base stations, central stations, point-to-point connections, point-to-multipoint links and small cells. The spectrum must support an operational end-to-end network and a commercial service.
Commercial use can include direct consumer or enterprise services as well as wholesale capacity, roaming, Multi-Operator Radio Access Network arrangements, Multi-Operator Core Network services and network slicing.
Operators will have to report annually to the ministry and communications regulator AGCOM. Reports must include the number and geographical distribution of sites, network architecture, technologies deployed and wholesale-access requests fulfilled.
Spectrum Sharing Could Support Private 5G and FWA
The lower 26 GHz licences will be individual but non-exclusive, introducing a more flexible model than conventional nationwide mobile-spectrum assignments.
Operators can dynamically use unused frequencies assigned to other licence holders within the relevant geographical area, potentially accessing up to 1 GHz. Such sharing must follow reasonable, non-discriminatory commercial arrangements and interference-management rules.
Licensees must also negotiate wholesale access with eligible providers seeking to offer 5G services. Access could involve capacity, spectrum use, roaming, network sharing or dedicated slices.
AGCOM said its objective is to provide a stable, long-term regulatory framework for 26 GHz investment, particularly for 5G fixed wireless access networks.
The approach could attract interest beyond Italy’s established mobile operators — TIM, Fastweb, Wind Tre and Iliad — from regional broadband providers, neutral-host companies, infrastructure investors and enterprise-network specialists.
Italy Takes Different Approach from €6.55 Billion 5G Auction
Italy’s 2018 auction allocated 700 MHz, 3.6–3.8 GHz and upper 26.5–27.5 GHz frequencies. Intense competition, particularly for the 3.7 GHz band, pushed total proceeds above €6.55 billion, more than twice the government’s original €2.5 billion target.
The high cost placed substantial financial pressure on operators at a time when Italian telecom revenue was already declining. The latest lower-26 GHz auction appears more focused on spectrum utilisation and network investment than on maximising state revenue.
That distinction is important because millimetre-wave 5G adoption has developed more slowly than initially expected across Europe. The band offers very high speeds and capacity but requires dense networks, extensive fibre connectivity and a clear business case.
Italy’s regional structure, sharing provisions and comparatively modest reserve prices could make the spectrum more useful for industrial connectivity, smart factories, ports, stadiums, transport facilities, business districts and high-capacity FWA.
The auction’s success will ultimately be measured not only by the amount raised but by whether the new 26 GHz licences produce commercially viable networks after the spectrum becomes available in 2029.
BABURAJAN KIZHAKEDATH
