Support Telecomtalk
Andrew Bonwick
Vice President of Product Development at Relm Insurance
Madhav Sheth
CEO of Ai+ Smartphone
Stephen Rose
CEO Render Networks
Telecom operator Bharti Airtel reaffirmed that it would not purchase 5G spectrum at the Trai recommended prices. Trai suggested Rs 492 crore per megahertz, but Airtel feels the prices are on the steeper side. Not only Bharti Airtel, but even Vodafone Idea also said the prices are on the higher side. But Trai is also standing on its word saying the prices of 5G spectrum will not be reduced and operators should purchase them at the recommended prices only. Bharti Airtel was recently hit by Rs 35,000 crore AGR dues which again took its overall debt to over Rs 1 lakh crore in the country. At this point, the company doesn’t want to purchase the 5G spectrum and the telco is even urging for more tariff hikes so that the ARPU can go past Rs 200 in no time.
- Make Telecom Talk My Trusted Source
-
-
Airtel Believes the Trai 5G Spectrum Recommended Prices are Too High
During the Earnings Call on Wednesday, Gopal Vittal, Bharti Airtel MD and CEO for India and South Asia region, said the 5G spectrum prices recommended by Trai are too high. “On the 3.5 Ghz band, Trai has recommended price to Rs 50,000 crore for 100 MHz of spectrum. 5G requires a large block of the spectrum. 100 Mhz spectrum for Rs 50,000 crore, we can’t afford. We believe it is too high. We will not pick it up at those prices,” he said, according to a PTI report.
Talks regarding 5G spectrum prices are going on for a while now in the industry and Trai is not budging in reducing the recommended prices. This essentially means the 5G rollout in India will be delayed like how it happened with 4G in the early 2010s.
