The Serbian government plans to auction spectrum for 5G services next year.

As reported by local publication Tanjug, Serbia's IT minister Mihailo Jovanovic announced the plans during the opening of the TELFOR conference this week.

"In parallel with the preparations for the 5G auction, the ministry is working on important prerequisites to a successful transition to 5G, and that is to remove barriers for the construction of base stations, as well as the construction of an optical network in rural areas, which will be necessary for the full potential of 5G technology to be realized within a reasonable period of time," Jovanovic said.

5G is still yet to launch in the country following several delays, notably in 2021, which was blamed on the pandemic.

It was then expected that a 5G auction would take place midway through 2022, but that didn't happen, before a public debate on the conditions for awarding licenses for 5G services was held in September.

This saw a public bidding procedure for the frequencies 694-790 MHz, 2,500-2,690 MHz, and 3,400-3,800 MHz.