Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains said there will be changes to the 3500MHz spectrum band, with a consultation on auction rules for 2020.
During his speech at the Canadian Telecom Summit on June 5th, he also announced that the government "decided to make over 7GHz of millimeter wave spectrum available for licence-exempt use this year, and another 4.85GHz for licensed use in 2021."
His department has also proposed to auction "additional 5G spectrum in the 3800MHz band in 2022."
Details on what the changes to the 3,500MHz spectrum will be available after a technical briefing call and a news release later this afternoon. This article will be updated with more information on that, as well as details on the auction. That will include details on existing 3500MHz spectrum that is licensed to Rogers and Bell and whether it will be taken from them and re-auctioned.
The largest holder of this band is rural broadband provider Xplornet. The company has said it is extremely concerned that by having the existing band re-auctioned off, it may suffer deploying services to its more than 350,000 customers.
It's worth noting that this auction is far more important than the more recent auction of the 600Mhz band. It is also expected that the Big Three are expected to be major players for the 3500MHz auction.
Bains announced last year that spectrum auctions would be set for these bands in 2020 and 2021.
"All these measures - the millimetre wave and 3500 and 3800 bands - will allow our telecom providers to provide 5G services to Canadians in a timely manner," Bains said at the summit. "I also want to reassure you that today's decisions reflect our government's strong determination to ensuring rural Canadians can fully participate in the digital economy."
More recently, the government auctioned off 600MHz spectrum, which resulted in $3.47 billion CAD. The auction also set aside 43 percent of the spectrum for regional wireless operators and potential new entrants in order to foster competition.
This auction will offer operators a spectrum that is low-frequency and is able to penetrate through buildings and provide long distance coverage.
In general, 5G operates over traditional and new cell radio frequency bands that include the low- (sub-1GHz such as 700MHz), mid- (1.6GHz, around 3.5-3.8GHz), and millimetre-wave (mmWave, such as 28GHz) ranges.
Bains noted that when 5G is fully deployed, it is expected to add $40 billion annually to Canada's economy by 2026.
More details will be added to this article when it is made available.