The rollout of 5G across the UK and Europe will “certainly be delayed” by the COVID-19 epidemic, Huawei has said. The coronavirus crisis is causing delays to the 5G rollout and warned these setbacks could continue until “the time when the pandemic is brought under control”.
Due to the same reason, multiple countries have now postponed planned 5G spectrum auctions. Speaking to reporters, Huawei vice-president Victor Zhang said there would “definitely” be an impact, but noted that it would not be as significant in the UK as the rest of Europe.
Huawei VP Victor Zhang told reporters that the impact wouldn’t hit the U.K. as hard as the rest of Europe, but setbacks may continue until the virus crisis is controlled.
Answering questions about its annual report, published on Tuesday, Huawei vice-president Victor Zhang said there would “definitely” be an impact but it would not be as significant in the UK as the rest of Europe.
Austria’s Telekom-Control-Kommission has decided to postpone its second 5G auction, France’s regulator Arcep has shelved its auction of 3.4–3.8GHz frequencies that was originally scheduled for April, and the Czech Republic has pushed back its auction of frequencies in the 700MHz and 3.5GHz bands until the middle of 2020 – Forbes.
Reuters reported that Spain, served by Euskaltel, MasMovil, Movistar, Orange Spain, and Vodafone Spain, has also postponed its auction. Local press reports said the government has informed the European Commission of its decision but has not yet proposed a new date for the allocation of 700MHz frequencies. This also raises the question of how the European Commission intends to deal with 700MHz frequency allocations that miss its deadline of 30 June 2020 because of COVID-19.
