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Telcos given until 13 September to apply to participate; bidder list to published 10 days later.
India’s government late on Monday set 29 September as the official start date for its multi-band spectrum auction.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) issued a notice inviting applications (NIA) that gives prospective bidders until 13 September to apply to take part; a final list of qualified participants will be published on 23 September. A mock auction will then take place on 26 and 27 September, followed by the auction proper on 29 September.
The government is auctioning 2,200 MHz of frequencies across the 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2.1 GHz, 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz bands. Licences will be valid for 20 years; rollout obligations vary by frequency band.
The government hopes to raise a minimum of 5.44 trillion rupees (€71 billion) from the sale; however, analysts doubt whether that sum is achievable, and there are expected to be some notable absentees when the auction kicks off.
Last week, state-owned BSNL became the latest telco to reveal it will not participate, citing financial and other reasons, according to a Press Trust of India report.
Norway’s Telenor in July confirmed it will not bid either, on grounds that the reserve prices mean it would struggle to achieve an acceptable return on investment.
Even India’s biggest mobile operator by subscribers, Bharti Airtel, indicated that its participation in the auction could be limited because it is not in need of a significant amount of additional spectrum.
It is worth considering also that operators in India are now able to trade and share spectrum, so there is less pressure to bid aggressively at auctions in order to secure more bandwidth. With that in mind, the DoT has put a 12-month moratorium on sharing airwaves sold in the upcoming auction.
