Georgia's regulator adds 5G and VoLTE tests to its mobile quality monitoring

Georgia's Communications Commission (ComCom) now measures 5G service, 4G voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) call quality and WhatsApp calls with a monitoring system supplied by Rohde & Schwarz. Chairman Goga Gulordava described the system to a joint meeting of two parliamentary committees, according to a ComCom statement dated 22 September. The Commission said the system was introduced in 2025 and "allows ComCom to conduct more comprehensive monitoring".

The same statement says 5G became available to subscribers of all three mobile operators in 2025. It gives no coverage, speed or subscriber figures for 5G, and it does not publish results from the new monitoring system.

What the system covers

ComCom said it monitors mobile service quality in all regions and for all three operators. The Rohde & Schwarz system measures 5G service, VoLTE call quality and calls made through WhatsApp, and operators can also use it to monitor the quality of their own services, according to the statement. The Commission said it gives consumers more detailed quality information.

The statement does not say how often measurements are taken, which devices or routes are used, which indicators are tracked or when results will be published. Those details would determine whether the data can be used to compare operators.

Coverage obligations and the three auctions

Silknet won combined lot N1 in the third 5G auction, covering the 700 MHz and 3400 to 3800 MHz bands, for GEL 48,802,257, ComCom announced on 27 June 2025. It must pay 30 per cent of the fee before the licence is issued and the remaining 70 per cent within a year of issue. Under the licence it must extend 5G gradually to densely populated settlements, tourist areas, ports, airports, railway stations and main highways, and build to European Union technical norms for quality and security.

ComCom's announcement of the auction on 24 May 2025 set seven years after the grant of licences as the period for meeting the coverage obligations. It said the auction was called at Silknet's request. Combined lots could be taken with or without an obligation to give mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) wholesale access, and the MVNO option carried a 20 per cent discount on the initial fee. Silknet took the lot without that obligation.

Cellfie Mobile was the only bidder in the first auction, in 2023. It took 700 MHz and 3400 to 3600 MHz for GEL 2,657,445 after the 20 per cent discount, in return for giving an MVNO access to its infrastructure, ComCom said. Magticom was the only bidder in 2024, paying GEL 77,125,735 for 700 MHz, 800 MHz and 3410 to 3710 MHz on a 15-year licence, Georgia Today reported.

The 2025 announcement also records that the mandatory MVNO requirement of the 2023 auction was dropped. It says Magticom was found to have significant market power and was separately required to give MVNOs access to its network. The three fees reported above add up to about GEL 128.6 million, on the figures given, although they cover different bands and terms and Cellfie's figure is after the discount.

By subscribers, Magticom held 41 per cent of the mobile market at the end of 2025, Silknet 36 per cent and Cellfie Mobile 23 per cent, according to ComCom's sector statement. Silknet, the last of the three operators to win 5G spectrum, has seven years from the grant of its licence to meet its coverage obligations.

Next-generation talks

On 9 October ComCom published a note on a meeting between Gulordava and Zhang Xiugui, Huawei's president for the Central Asia region. The note says they discussed prospects for mobile network development, the use of radio spectrum in Georgia and spectrum planning for mobile networks, the capabilities of 5G-Advanced and the prospects for 6G. It adds that Huawei presented its vision for communications development and technological solutions for introducing next-generation mobile technologies.

The note names no products, purchases or timelines, and it records no decisions.