Mumbai: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), which is expected to submit its final recommendations on various aspects of 5G spectrum auctions in March, has asked telecom companies and stakeholders to provide their additional submissions before 15 February, especially with details around methods for valuation of the spectrum.
The submissions were invited during an open house discussion held by Trai, where telecom operators and satellite players remained sharply divided.
According to the PTI release, the telecom regulator had earlier recommended the base price of the proposed 5G spectrum in 3,300-3,600 MHz band at about Rs 492 crore per MHz unpaired spectrum on a pan-India basis. Telecom operators interested in buying radiowaves for 5G will have to shell out a minimum of Rs 9,840 crore on a pan-India basis to buy spectrum in the 3,300-3,600 Mhz band. If the telecom operators’ demands are met then the medium band spectrum should cost them only Rs 492 crore at the base price.
Major telecom players suggested that Trai should fix the base price of the 5G spectrum in mid-band and high-frequency bands using international benchmarks. They recommended the regulator to map international pricing benchmarks at the telecom circle level by using a matrix of average revenue per user, GDP of the country, etc.
Meanwhile, satellite players opposed telecom operators’ demand to auction a high-frequency range of 27.5- 28.5 GHz.
Satcom players are of the opinion that as per global practice, 27.5-28.5 GHz have never been auctioned, and hence should be allocated administratively in India as well. Providing in-flight services and maritime connectivity to 500 vessels in the 28 GHz and allocation of this frequency will adversely impact the company’s operation, they said.
