The Government launched a public consultation today on the assignment arrangements of 5G mobile services and the spectrum utilisation fee.

The 200 MHz of spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band, for assignment from April 1, 2020, will be the first batch of spectrum available for the Hong Kong market for the provision of 5G public mobile services.

Speaking to the media today, Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development Edward Yau said: "We are making early preparations for the incoming 5G, which hopefully would not just bring improvement to telecommunications, but also make Internet of Things and smart city applications a reality."

As there is likely to be competing demand for the spectrum, the Communications Authority has proposed to assign the spectrum by auction for all interested parties including current mobile network operators and new entrants.

On the spectrum utilisation fee, it is also proposed to be determined by auction. The reserve price will be set by the Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development.

"These bandwidths are a precious public asset, so we will continue to use the existing way of distributing through market and we hope it will be welcomed by the market, and that is why we are launching the consultation," Mr Yau added.

After collecting views from the consultation exercise the Government will announce the decisions on the arrangements around the end of 2018.

The auction is expected to be conducted towards the end of 2019 at the earliest, should it be adopted as the arrangement for assigning the spectrum.

The public consultation will run until June 13.

Click here for the consultation document.

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