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The country’s telecoms minister confirmed that the government will not alter the pricing recommendations by the Telecoms Regulatory Authority Of India (TRAI)
Representatives from the Indian government have confirmed that it has no plans to cut the price of 5G spectrum, ahead of the country’s first spectrum auction for 5G airwaves.
Journalists from the Economic Times of India reported that the country’s Telecoms Minister, Ravi Shankar Pradad, confirmed that there would be no reduction in spectrum pricing.
Prasad also confirmed that the government is holding huge quantities of unsold spectrum, as operators baulked at prices in earlier auctions.
"The value of unsold spectrum as on date as per valuation by TRAI in its recommendations on Auction of Spectrum in 700 MHz, 800MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz, 3300-3400 MHz, 3400-3600MHz Bands dated August 1, 2018 is Rs 4.9 lakh crores," Prasad said.
TRAI has set the price for spectrum in the 3.3-3.6 band at 9,840 crore rupees (98,400,000,000 rupees, $1.4 billion), for its smallest available block of spectrum.
India’s cash strapped operators have long bemoaned the price of spectrum in India and have struggled to balance the super competitive market conditions with the intense capital investment demands of 5G.
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