The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released recommendations on auction of 5G spectrum in the bands including 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz, 3300-3400 MHz and 3400-3600 MHz. The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has requested TRAI to provide applicable reserve price, the quantum of spectrum to be auctioned along with the associated conditions for the auction of spectrum in the above-mentioned bands.
TRAI Already Issued the Consultation Paper Last Year to Speed up the Process
TRAI sought additional information and some other classification from DoT on the subject matter in May last year since the available information was not enough to go further into the recommendation process. However, the Telecom Authority of India issued the consultation paper with the available information a few months later. The consultation paper was aimed at stakeholders seeking comments. An open house discussion was conducted earlier this year to gain knowledge on the public view. DoT also provided the additional information later and finally, based on the comments and views of the stakeholders, the Authority has released the final recommendation list. The recommendations up for auction cover the bands with frequencies including 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz, 3300-3400 MHz and 3400-3600 MHz.
5G Spectrum Auction Recommendations: Key Features
As per the TRAI guideline, the entire available spectrum 3300 MHz to 3600 MHz should be put to auction and all of it should be made available for access across India except for some locations reserved by ISRO. The 3300- 3600MHZ should be put to auction as a single band with TDD frequency arrangement. Also, this range should be put in the block size of 20MHz. In order to stop monopolization from happening, the bidder must have a limit of 100MHz and this limit should apply for spectrum trading as well. If a TSP ends up acquiring more than one block, the entire spectrum would be handed over to it in a contagious form. Also, for the 3300-3600MHz band, there will be no rollout obligations, the lack of which could result in the misuse. However, to prevent this, the lock-in period for the spectrum to become eligible for trading has been increased from 2 years to 5 years. The revised provision of the spectrum including the overall 35% cap and the cap of 50% is extended to all the bands. Additionally, the 3300-3600 MHz band will also have the spectrum holding cap of 100MHz per licensee. Take a look at the following table for the recommended reserve price for the spectrum bands.
India Does Not Believe in OverRegulation: TRAI Chairman
Speaking on the regulatory environment, TRAI chairman RS Sharma said “Trai will focus only on light touch regulation and has given government recommendation to further ease norms for doing business. “India does not believe in overregulation. Trai has believed in light touch regulation like pricing (of telecom services) is under forbearance. We have also given the recommendation to government on ease of doing business and proposed a large number of reforms,” he added.
In the previous spectrum auction held in 2016, the government had put a total of 2,354.55MHz of mobile airwaves for sale in all bands of 700 Mhz, 800 Mhz, 900 Mhz, 1,800 Mhz, 2,100 Mhz and 2,300 Mhz, that translates to a cumulative value of around Rs 5.63 trillion at base price. However, nearly 60 per cent of the radio waves, including premium 4G bands, remained unsold in that auction. Let’s see how this auction plays out. We are hoping that more bands will be sold this year since the telecom operators are so keen on bringing 5G services to their user base. Speaking of, Reliance Jio has already started acquiring companies from abroad to aid with the 5G technology cause. We can expect a sooner launch in the country after the official recommendations to auction 5G spectrum has been released.
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