Deutsche Telekom says customers, operators pay price for 5G auction

BERLIN (Reuters) - The CEO of Deutsche Telekom criticised the amount companies will have to pay to get fifth generation mobile internet spectrum in Germany as the amount of total bids approached 5 billion euros ($5.6 billion) on Wednesday.

"This money is taken away from the customers, citizens and operators," Timotheus Hoettges said at a conference in Berlin.

"You can only spend the euro once," he said, adding that 4.6 billion euros equal 23,000 mobile sites that the industry cannot build.

($1 = 0.8879 euros)

(Reporting by Nadine Schimroszik; writing by Thomas Seythal; editing by Tassilo Hummel)