Short answer: a licence for your own 5G network on your own site is issued by the Dutch regulator RDI (Rijksinspectie Digitale Infrastructuur). In 2026 you pay 271 euros once when the licence is granted and 102 euros per year for supervision. The licence is tied to your parcel, in the 3.5 GHz band, and runs until 31 December 2040. The licence itself is rarely the expensive part of a private 5G network.
What exactly do you apply for?
The RDI calls it a perceelgebonden net, a site-bound network: a local mobile broadband network that you may only use on the parcel your company or organisation owns or uses. Since 1 December 2023 the RDI has been issuing these licences in two parts of the 3.5 GHz band.
| Item | What applies |
|---|---|
| Frequencies | 3400 to 3450 MHz and 3750 to 3800 MHz, 50 MHz each |
| How much spectrum | You request what you need. More than 50 MHz requires both blocks and a justification |
| Where | Only on your own parcel: contiguous land or water you own or use, even if it consists of several cadastral parcels |
| Valid until | 31 December 2040. The RDI does not renew automatically |
| Put into use | Within 9 months of the licence start date |
| For whom | Companies and organisations, for their own use. Offering services to third parties is not allowed |
In practice most applicants choose the upper block, 3750 to 3800 MHz. In the lower block radar-related restrictions apply in many places, which leaves less usable spectrum. Common 5G equipment for band n78 works in both blocks.
What does the licence cost in 2026?
| Item | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Once, when granted | € 257 | € 271 |
| Yearly, for supervision | € 97 | € 102 |
The amounts are set in the Regeling vergoedingen Rijksinspectie Digitale Infrastructuur, annex 1, part I.B.1, and are revised every year, so expect a small annual increase. The same category in the regulation also lists a yearly amount per fixed station for land mobile networks; whether that applies to your situation is something we check during the application. Be careful with figures of thousands of euros per year that you may find online: those concern nationally auctioned frequencies or foreign schemes, not the Dutch site-bound licence.
How the application works
- Step 1: define the parcel. You submit a map with the perimeter of the site and show that you are the owner or user, for instance with a lease.
- Step 2: choose the frequency block and the amount of spectrum. That follows from the radio design: how many devices, how much upload, indoor or outdoor.
- Step 3: complete the RDI application form for 3.5 GHz frequency space for a site-bound network.
- Step 4: once granted, you have 9 months to put the network into use.
- Step 5: register antenna sites with a transmit power above 10 dBW (ERP) in the Dutch Antenna Register.
The condition most often underestimated: synchronisation
A site-bound network must be synchronised with the other networks in the 3400 to 3800 MHz band, including the national networks of the mobile operators. In practice that means the same split between download and upload time as the operators use, and an accurate clock in your network. Deviating is only allowed if you cause no interference to national use or to other private networks. As a result the ratio between download and upload is largely fixed. If you need a lot of upload, for cameras for example, you solve that in the design, not in the licence.
The RDI also expects you to cooperate with licence holders on neighbouring parcels on an equal footing. On a business park with several private networks you agree among yourselves how not to interfere with each other.
When do you not need a licence?
- Private LTE or 5G through an operator: the network then runs on the operator's spectrum, often as a shielded part of the national network. No licence of your own, but less control too.
- Wi-Fi: works in licence-exempt bands. Suitable for many uses, without the predictability of your own spectrum.
- Temporary networks, at an event or construction site for example: other routes apply. We arrange what is needed per project.
What does the rest of the network cost?
At a few hundred euros the licence is the smallest item. The rest is radios and antennas, the core, SIM cards, the radio design and installation. Because Networkguys uses its own core with a fixed fee per SIM, and you can choose between new and refurbished hardware, a small setup can be built for under 10,000 euros. The full calculation is in our article on the cost of private 5G.
What we do for you
We handle the application as part of the project: defining the parcel, choosing the block and bandwidth based on a survey, submitting the form and registering the antenna sites. You start with a three month trial on the same hardware as the final network, so you know what it delivers before you invest.