Jio and Airtel interested in acquiring 4G spectrum

Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel now seem interested in acquiring 4G spectrum, as there has been a rise in demand and change in traffic pattern. Industry is ready for augmenting 4G spectrum, COAI Director General Rajan S Mathews told PTI.

With the COVID pandemic, the overall traffic has jumped by 10% and streaming platforms have witnessed a 20% spike in viewership. Remote working, video conferencing, and telecommunications technology have quickly emerged as key enablers for business operations during this lockdown, and streaming services such as Netflix have become the go to source for entertainment, putting the telecom sector in the spotlight.

DoT is planning to hold the next round of spectrum auction by October this year in which it would sell around 8,000 megahertz of radio waves across several bands at a cumulative value of around Rs 3.8 trillion that can be used for 4G services. The government has relaxed payment terms for auctions that were held earlier as well as for the upcoming round. Earlier the companies were required to pay for the spectrum purchased in auction in eight annual instalments which has now been changed to 16 annual instalments.

The DoT has selected public sector firm MSTC Ltd as auctioneer for conducting the next round of spectrum sales. The DoT has issued the letter of intent to the mini ratna. It may take around two months for MSTC Ltd to design and develop software for e-auction of spectrum. Four bidders had qualified in the technical round, mjunction services Ltd, C1 India Pvt Ltd, e-Procurement Technologies Ltd. and MSTC Ltd.

The auction shall be without the frequency band range of 3,300 -3,600 Mhz band proposed to be used for 5G services. The auction was initially planned for the sale of 8303.05 MHz of airwaves, including 5G spectrum in the 3300-3600 MHz band and 4G spectrum in the 700MHz, 800MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, 2100MHz, 2300MHz and 2500MHz bands. The amount anticipated to be raised was Rs 5.23 trillion, if the airwaves are sold at their base price.  —CT Bureau