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Multi-band spectrum sale to take place in May-June timeframe, India’s telecom secretary says.
India’s mobile operators are doubtless bracing themselves for another heavy hit on their wallets in the wake of the news that the government plans to hold a new spectrum auction in a matter of months.
The auction will take place in May or June this year, India’s telecom secretary Rakesh Garg revealed at an industry event in New Delhi, according to a report in the Economic Times on Friday.
The contest will include all the spectrum that is currently available for allocation, Garg said, without providing specifics.
There will be a number of bands up for grabs. Six months ago the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) requested that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) set reserve prices for spectrum in the 800-MHz, 900-MHz, 1800-MHz, 2.1-GHz, 2.3-GHz and 2.5-GHz bands.
Any sale could also see 700-MHz spectrum for 4G services made available to mobile operators for the first time.
At the time, the Economic Times speculated that the auction could raise more than the 1.09 trillion rupees (€15.9 billion) generated by India’s most recent multi-band auction that ended in March 2015.
A sobering thought for any telco that spent big on spectrum last year.
Idea Cellular, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone together accounted for around 79% of the sum raised last time, incidentally.
But that does not mean they will watch from the sidelines this time.
