Vodafone Italy spends €2.4bn in govt 5G auction

(Sharecast News) - Vodafone Italy on Wednesday said it had bought a range of 5G service airwaves for €2.4bn (£2.14bn) in an auction run by the Italian government.The auction raised €6.bn in total for the Italian treasury, which is struggling under a heavy debt burden.Vodafone chief executive Nick Read said the company had bought spectrum across several frequencies, adding that a pilot scheme in Milan run with the government was aiming to cover 80% of the city by December.However, Read issued a stark warning for governments hoping to cash on on future spectrum sales."Auctions should be designed to balance fiscal requirements with the need for investment to enable economic development," he said."Telecoms is the sector that enables all other sectors to participate in the Gigabit society. It is critical that European governments avoid artificial auction constructs which fail to strike a healthy balance for the industry."