The 2nd phase of Refarming project started in 2020 and will be concluded in 2021. Scope of this phase is aimed at extending LTE2100 10 MHz carrier to 15 MHz by removing UMTS2100 carrier. Afterwards, entire Orange 2100 MHz spectrum is to be dedicated to LTE (or LTE and 5G DSS) service and total Orange LTE bandwidth should reach 50 MHz.
The main point of concern is however the acquisition of frequency resources necessary for 5G development. It is assumed that three bands will be used for the new generation network: 3.4–3.8 GHz, 700 MHz and 26 GHz.
On March 6, 2020, following two rounds of public consultation, the President of UKE announced the launch of an auction procedure to allocate four nationwide frequency blocks in the 3480–3800 MHz range, the primary pioneer band for 5G.
Four licences of 80 MHz each, valid for 15 years, were to be allocated in the process.
Only one entity from each group of companies was eligible to participate in the auction. Each participant (or its group) had to demonstrate a record of investments of at least PLN 1 billion in telecommunications infrastructure between 2016 and 2018 and to hold a frequency licence in the 800, 900, 1800, 2100 or 2600 MHz band (it is of paramount importance, as the 5G network will be initially deployed in a Non-Standalone (NSA) architecture). The starting price for each block was set at PLN 450 million. The auction winners were to launch 5G over at least 700 base stations using the allocated frequencies by the end of 2025.
In April 2020, due to the pandemic situation the President of UKE suspended the auction procedure; later, as a consequence of changes in telco law regarding the implementation of the new requirements for the safety and integrity of telecommunication infrastructure and services, auction was cancelled.
