India’s major private Telecom companies, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea have recommended reduction in 5G base, in the upcoming 5G auctions, expected later this year. Cellular Operators Association of India in TRAI’s response to consultation paper on 5G said, “Pricing of Spectrum needs to be re looked. Reserve Price should be kept low and fixed at 50% of the valuation of spectrum.”
COAI also expects existing Spectrum Usage Charges (SUC) on spectrum acquired in past auction to be lowered by 3% across all the bands for all the TSPs and the floor of 3% for the SUC should be withdrawn.
COAI has also recommended availability of all 5G spectrum bands. COAI expects sub-GHz, mid-band and high- band is put to auction in the forthcoming auction for 5G/ IMT along with V-Band and E-Band.
Spectrum cost as a proportion of revenue is far higher in India as compared to other countries. COAI says, “the current reserve price recommended by TRAI for the 5G spectrum (for 3.5 GHz band) is Rs 492Cr/MHz. Which is much higher than certain developed countries and other countries in Asia and South America.
In the recently concluded spectrum auctions in 2021, UK set the reserve price for 5G spectrum (3.6- 3.8 GHz) as Rs 40.03Cr/MHz. Hongkong set (3.5 GHz) Rs. 3.87Cr/MHz, while in Portugal (3.6 MHz) it was 1.07Cr/MHz.
TRAI in the upcoming few weeks is expected to hold a procedural Open House Discussion in a few weeks. After finalising recommendations, TRAI will submit these to the Department of Telecommunications. It is anticipated 5G auctions will be held in a few months.
