New Delhi: The Department of Telecommunications<\/a> (DoT) is planning to conduct another auction of 5G<\/a> spectrum of about Rs 2.5 lakh crore at base price in January-February next year, which could see the debut of airwaves above 37 GHz, said officials.
Airwaves in 11 bands ranging from 600 MHz to above 37 GHz are likely to be put up for sale, they said.
The auction is unlikely to see much of a bidding intensity overall , with only two buyers, Reliance Jio<\/a> and Bharti Airtel<\/a> effectively in the fray, since the third private player, Vodafone Idea<\/a> (Vi), is struggling to survive amid cash flow turmoil, say experts.
But Bharti Airtel<\/a> and Vi have permits expiring in 2024 in some circles such as West Bengal, Assam, Bihar and Odisha, some of which could see some fight, they added. For example, in the 2022 sale, the winning price of UP (East) soared almost 80% over its base price as Bharti Airtel – whose permits expire in 2024 in India’s most populous circle – fought with Jio to protect its business.
“We are currently finalising the spectrum availability and will soon send the reference to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), seeking recommendations for pricing and other modalities,” an official told ET on condition of anonymity.
This is the first time that spectrum in the above 37 GHz bands, also known as millimetre wave (mmWave) band, could be put up for sale. “Around 88000 MHz spectrum is available in above 37 GHz bands. Apart from this, all the unsold spectrum in the last auction will be again put up for sale,” said another official.
While the mid-band spectrum of 3300 MHz remains the preferred band for 5G rollout, the mmWave band is also considered effective for 5G, especially for enterprise use cases, according to experts.
In the last auction, which concluded on August 1, 2022, the government netted a record Rs 1,50,173 crore, with bids for 71% of the 72.098 GHz of airwaves put on the block. The mid-band (3300 MHz) and mmWave band (26 GHz) airwaves were sold at the base prices of Rs 317 crore per MHz and Rs 6.99 crore per MHz, generating Rs 80,590 crore and Rs 14,709 crore respectively.