South Korea will hold an auction for frequencies that will be used for the fifth-generation network on June 15, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced Thursday.

The ministry will receive bids from mobile carriers starting Friday through June 4, and hold the auction on the decided day.

Through a public hearing on prices of 5G frequencies held last month, the ministry set the opening price for the auction of high-end frequencies -- 28 blocks (280 megahertz) in the 3.5-gigahertz spectrum and 24 blocks (2,400MHz) in the 28-GHz spectrum -- at 3.3 trillion won ($3.11 billion). 

The country’s three mobile carriers are eyeing on the 3.5-GHz wavelength, which can provide better quality services at longer distances with fewer relay transmit stations.

However, the ministry decided to limit the maximum amount of spectrums a mobile carrier can be allocated with is 100MHz in the 3.5-GHz spectrum and 1,000MHz in the 28-GHz spectrum.

“The ministry decided to strictly limit the total amounts considering that it is the very beginning of the 5G network era,” it said. “When traffics increase after commercialization, the ministry will come up with additional supply plans.”

Regarding the upper caps, the mobile carriers showed divided reactions.

SK Telecom expressed discontent about the lower-than-expected cap on the 3.5-GHz frequency. The company wants to acquire at least 120MHz in the spectrum, claiming that it has the largest number of Long Term Evolution service subscribers.

Meanwhile, KT said the government limit is deemed desirable considering that the gap among the three operators should be minimized for fair competition in the new 5G market.

In the first stage of the upcoming auction, 50 rounds will be held at the maximum, limiting the bid growth at 1 percent at the largest.

The mobile carriers will be required to establish a total of 150,000 5G stations for the 3.5-GHz spectrum, while the required units of equipment is set at 100,000.  

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)