Telco/Internet specialist

Kirk Boodry

Redex Research

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

Japan Telecom services / Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<p>The Ministry of Industry Affairs and Communications (MIC, the regulator) will allocate 2.2 GHz of new spectrum bandwidth by the end of March equal to 2.8x the existing spectrum base. This is not unexpected but we think this is a good opportunity to re-iterate some of the positive points on 5G spectrum as operators make their final applications this month and we wait for a final decision in six weeks. Importantly, with ten spectrum channels, not everyone will be treated equally although all should benefit. We expect <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/31" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:31:1">Rakuten Inc (4755 JP)</a>  to pick up one-two bands whilst <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/639" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:639:1">KDDI Corp (9433 JP)</a> , <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/1089" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:1089:1">NTT Docomo Inc (9437 JP)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/27445" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:27445:1">Softbank Corp (9434 JP)</a>  should all receive at least two.</p>

The Ministry of Industry Affairs and Communications (MIC, the regulator) will allocate 2.2 GHz of new spectrum bandwidth by the end of March equal to 2.8x the existing spectrum base. This is not unexpected but we think this is a good opportunity to re-iterate some of the positive points on 5G spectrum as operators make their final applications this month and we wait for a final decision in six weeks. Importantly, with ten spectrum channels, not everyone will be treated equally although all should benefit. We expect Rakuten Inc (4755 JP)  to pick up one-two bands whilst KDDI Corp (9433 JP) , NTT Docomo Inc (9437 JP) and Softbank Corp (9434 JP)  should all receive at least two.

Value-Enhancing 5G Spectrum Allocations on the Way for KDDI, DoCoMo, Softbank and Rakuten