New Delhi: A week after Bharti Airtel said it would not buy spectrum at recommended prices, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Wednesday refused to back down from its suggestions on base price and valuation of spectrum for the upcoming auction, including that for 5G airwaves.
“Trai has recommended the reserve pricing after taking into account the feedback and comments from various stakeholders and have given that to the government. The government has also accepted those reserve prices and it is for the government to decide the timing of the auction. Stakeholders will decide whether they want to participate in the auction or not," Trai chairman R.S. Sharma told reporters today.
Trai had sent its recommendations to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in July last year.
“TRAI recommended (prices) on the 3.5 GHz band is close to ₹49,000 crore or ₹50,000 crore for 100 MHz of spectrum...5G requires large blocks of spectrum. So at 100 MHz, ₹50,000 crore is just something that we can't afford and we believe it's too high priced. So we will not pick it up at those prices," Bharti Airtel chief executive officer Gopal Vittal had said in an earnings call on 5 February.
In December, the DoT had approved base prices for the spectrum auction scheduled to be held by April. The government plans to put 8,300 MHz of spectrum at a reserve price of ₹5.23 trillion under the hammer.
Of the 8,300 MHz of airwaves the government plans to offer, 6,050 MHz have been allocated for 5G.
The 3,300-3,600MHz band allocated for 5G has been priced at ₹492 crore per MHz following the Trai's August 2018 recommendation.
5G is the next generation of wireless technology, and will boost data speeds and propel Internet of Things along with the potential to bring radical changes in agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare and education.
The government did not auction any spectrum in FY18 and FY19.
In FY17, the Centre had raised ₹65,789 crore through spectrum sale, a fraction of the ₹5.63 trillion worth of spectrum, at base price, it had put up for sale. While the total spectrum put up for sale was 2,354.44MHz across seven bands, the government managed to sell just 965MHz.
