DoT had sought Trai's views on spectrum price for various frequencies, including premium airwaves in the 700 MHz band
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) may issue a consultation paper on next round of spectrum auction this week.
Trai chairman R S Sharma said the consultation paper on spectrum auction and pricing is "ready" and hoped to release it this week.
Sharma was speaking on the sidelines of ITU-TRAI Asia Pacific Regulators Roundtable on Monday.
Earlier this year the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had sought Trai's views on spectrum price for various frequencies, including premium airwaves in the 700 MHz band, which remained unsold in the last auctions in October 2016.
During the last auction, the government had put airwaves worth Rs 5.66 lakh crore for sale. In the five-day auction, seven telecom companies made commitments of Rs 65,789 crore for buying 964.80 MHz of spectrum in various frequency bands.
Even at the end of the auction, nearly 60% of the spectrum remained unsold (in all 2,354.55 MHz was placed the block) and spectrum worth Rs 4 lakh crore in 700 MHz band found no takers.
Sharma in an interview with DNA Money recently said, “Indian telecom market is a matured market. Presently, Indian telecom sector has a legacy 2G network as well as 3G and 4G. New technologies are more spectrum-efficient and robust, which ensures that scarce resources like spectrum are efficiently utilised. Since the technology is evolving in such a way that it can support backward compatibility with the existing technologies, all the technologies will coexist in at least for few years to come.”
In India, spectrum has been liberalised which allows operators to deploy any technology in a given spectrum band, subject to availability of technology and desired ecosystem in that frequency band.
The consultation paper is being keenly watched by the industry. It will come at a time when the financial stress in the telecom sector is high and the industry has been demanding some kind of financial incentive from the government. Also, with the entry of a new player Reliance Jio in the sector, the existing players have faced turbulent times with declining margins and profits.
...& ANALYSIS
- During the last auction, the government had put airwaves worth Rs 5.66 lakh crore for sale
- Nearly 60% of the spectrum had remained unsold and spectrum in 700 MHz band had found no takers
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