4G and 5G Spectrum Auction Might Happen in First Quarter of 2020, Telcos Still Reluctant

The telecom minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad has already spoken in the parliament about the spectrum auction saying that the government will not lower the reserve prices which have been suggested by the telecom regulator. He also added that the highest decision-making body in the telecom industry which is the Digital Communications Commission, is set to meet shortly regarding the issue of spectrum sale and it could discuss on various points, one of which would be the pricing of the spectrum. The government has also said that it won’t be cutting up the spectrum and selling it in pieces; instead, the centre would be selling the airwaves in large chunks.

Data Airwaves Expiring in 2021

As per a second person, the telecom operators require more bandwidth with increasing data demand and a lot of airwaves expiring in 2021. He added that it is up to the government to hold the auctions and then up to the telecom operators to participate. As per the stats available on the spectrum auction, around 8,293.95 MHz of 4G and 5G spectrum will be put up for sale which can get the government Rs 5.86 lakh crore if all of it is sold at the reserve price suggested by Trai.

Another person aware of the happenings said, “If operators can bid for spectrum of insolvent companies like Reliance Communications (RCom), it means they need spectrum to run their network and therefore can participate in auctions as well.”

If the analysts are to be believed, then Reliance Jio is in need of early auction of 4G airwaves since a sizeable chunk of Reliance Communications airwaves are in the 800 MHz band. These airwaves are used by Reliance Jio on a sharing basis, and they will expire in 18 circles in July-August 2021. Not only this, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea will also need to buy back their expiring airwaves, but they are mostly in the 1800 MHz band only.