11 May 2021

The Dutch government has told British satellite telecom firm Inmarsat to relocate  from the village of Burum in the north of the country, after independent research showed that the latter’s services and 5G could not coexist in the same spectrum band.Operators worldwide are looking to rollout 5G services as quickly as possible to steal a march on their rivals, but their ambitions are often limited by the availability of suitable spectrum.

In many countries, the frequencies best-suited for 5G are already in use, with satellite operators often reluctant to undertake the difficult process of migrating their services to other bands. This is also true for Inmarsat in the Netherlands, which has been in discussion with the Dutch government for around 18 months regarding its operations within the country’s C-band spectrum. Currently, the Dutch government wants to auction frequencies in the 3.5 GHz band in early 2022, arguing that Inmarsat will have until then to vacate the respective spectrum.

However, Inmarsat said its services can co-exist alongside Dutch 5G and is set to sue the Dutch government after the latter said it would need the satellite operator to relocate a ground station it currently shares with the military.

Burum is the site of a ground station of the Dutch Nationale SIGINT Organisatie, which intercepts satellite communications.