AMSTERDAM: In a disagreement over the usage of 5G capacity in the Netherlands, a Dutch court decided in favor of Inmarsat on Wednesday, ordering the government to defer a decision to reserve the bandwidth for telecoms as of Sept. 1, 2022. For satellite communications with troubled ships, Inmarsat currently uses the 3.5 MHz frequency. The state had “insufficiently comprehended” the value of that usage, the Rotterdam District Court concluded in a summary of its judgement, and had mistakenly put it subordinate to economic interests.
In a statement, Inmarsat stated that it expected a solution would be discovered and that the country’s 5G deployment could still go through.
Inmarsat’s General Counsel Brad Swann stated in a statement that the company “looks forward to working with the Dutch Government to find a solution that does not compromise satellite safety services.”
In a statement, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs stated that it “recognizes” the necessity of safety communications and that it would address the issue with Inmarsat and other parties concerned before informing parliament of the outcome.
Because the 3.5 MHz bandwidth was used by both Inmarsat and Dutch military intelligence services from a station in Burum, Netherlands, the implementation of 5G in the Netherlands has lagged behind that in other European countries.
The government has auctioned off the use of the 3.5 MHz frequency to large telecommunications corporations, and parliament has passed a bill requiring other users of the band to find alternate frequencies by Sept. 1, 2022.
(Toby Sterling contributed reporting.) Jane Merriman did the editing. )/n
