5G regulation and law in Slovenia

Operators introduced 5G services at the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021.

5G household coverage is 36.6%, and 2.8% in rural areas.

Yes. Certain operators started to introduce special 5G services aimed at the most active users.  

The authorities have granted a 700MHz licence to support business-critical machine-to-machine (M2M), so projects such as smart factories are now in the testing phase. 

Public auctions aim to create effective competition. The local regulator AKOS (Agencija za komunikacijska omrežja in storitve) has set spectrum caps to ensure competitive frequency access in order to prevent hoarding.

It will also consider spectrum caps when transferring or leasing usage rights.

So far, there is no information available on accessibility to stadiums, airports and other special premises.

There are mobile communications networks that operate in the licensed part of the spectrum, and their use is defined by paragraphs 2 and 3 of Article 33 of the Electronic Communications Act:

• for mobile communications and providing public communication services to end users (paragraph 3 of Article 33), and
• for mobile communications where the efficient use of a certain radio frequency can only be ensured by limiting the number of issued decisions on awarding radio frequencies (paragraph 2 of Article 33).

A public tender auctioned all available spectrum  
in the 700 MHz, 1500 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 3600 MHz and 26 GHz bands.

After 41 rounds of bidding in the main auction (7 April 2021 - 14 April 2021) and six rounds of bidding in the allocation phase (16 April 2021), telecom operators acquired frequencies worth a total of  EUR 164m. 

The operators that acquired frequencies in the priority bands 700 MHz FDD and/or 3600 MHz must (i) within three months of the decision, start offering 5G services to end-users in at least one band  in at least one major city, and (ii), by 31 December 2025, offer services to end-users over 5G technology and provide Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) functionality and support, provided that they have at least 70 MHz of federal spectrum, and provide support for crowdsourced sensor (IoT) networks on the acquired frequencies in at least one of the major cities. If these functions are not supported, the operator must provide evidence to explain the delay. The service must be available through base stations covering at least 75% of the population of each urban area.

The auction process consists of two stages: 1)  allocation  2) an assignment . The first determines the number of lots awarded to each bidder in each lot category, and the base prices winners must pay. The second consists of a main auction and, if any unsold lots remain following the main auction, potentially a resale auction, at the discretion of AKOS. The assignment stage determines the specific frequency blocks that will be assigned to bidders allocated frequency-generic lots, and any additional payments each bidder must pay to receive its assignment. It comprises one bidding round for each band, held in ascending frequency order.

General coverage obligations - The applicants that acquire spectrum in any of the bands must offer commercially available wireless broadband terrestrial wireless broadband electronic communications services in each of the acquired bands:

• to begin offering services to end-users on these frequencies in at least one major city within one year of acquiring the licence,
• to offer services to end users on all these frequencies at least in each major city within five years.

These time limits do not apply to the frequencies in the 700 MHz, SDL, 1500 MHz SDL and 26 GHz bands, which must be offered to end-users in at least one major city within five years.
The provision to offer commercially available wireless broadband terrestrial wireless broadband electronic communications services is  through base stations covering at least 75% of the population of a  major city, and the start of use of radio frequencies means that the services must be provided through at least one base station in a city.

This obligation depends on the market availability of terminals and base stations. If the operator can provide appropriate evidence that these are not available, the Agency will extend the deadline.

The bidding process.

Yes, there is the General Act on the radio frequency usage plan and a Decree on the radio frequency band allocation plan. There will be additional public tenders in the 2300 MHz and 3600 MHz range for local usage.

We do not yet have information on when the next bidding processes will begin.

No 5G-specific rules have been drafted.

So far, no information is available. 

The Electronic Communications Act (ZEKom) governs telecommunication networks and spectrum sharing rules. Please refer to point 11 below for the second question.

So far, no information is available.

To ensure efficient use of radio spectrum, improve coverage and reduce environmental impact, the Agency encourages the following sharing options:

• sharing of passive or active infrastructure or spectrum pooling,
• business arrangements on national roaming,
• joint deployment of network and service infrastructure

Active sharing and frequency pooling are allowed as long as they do not limit infrastructure competition. For example, operators may share active equipment and frequency pooling when passive 
sharing is not sufficient to improve coverage and reduce environmental impact, for example in challenging areas and in small cell roll-outs.

The Electronic Communications Act requires operators to take appropriate technical and organisational measures to manage risks to network security and services, in particular to prevent and reduce the effects of security incidents on users and interconnected networks. These measures include adopting and implementing an appropriate security plan.

The Ministry of Public Administration has prepared a national risk assessment for 5G networks. 

The government has signed a joint declaration with the US on “5G Clean Network Security” that aims to exclude untrustworthy telecommunications vendors.