On Wednesday, Belgium finally reached an agreement on the auction of the 5G licences for superfast mobile internet as the Consultative Committee approved the legal framework for the network’s rollout next year.

The House of Representatives already approved the bill on the auction of 5G rights for mobile internet in June, but there was still discussion on how exactly the auction should be organised. That has now been decided.

“There will finally be a 5G rollout in our country next year,” confirmed Federal Minister for Telecommunications Petra De Sutter in a press release.

5G is the next generation in the development of mobile internet, which the general population will notice, for example, in the download speed on their smartphones. However, a 5G network is specifically interesting for business applications to connect smart devices to the internet, such as robots in industry and healthcare.

Specifically, the earlier discussion concerned the part of the frequency spectrum that had to be reserved for a possible new, fourth player on the market, alongside Proximus, Telenet and Orange.