TRAI announces 5G spectrum pricing, cuts base price for 700 MHz

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended 43 percent cut in base price for 4G airwaves in the 700MHz band.

TRAI also recommended a reserve price of Rs 492 crore a unit for 5G airwaves in the 3300-3600MHz bands in the next auction.

The Authority has finalized its recommendations on 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz, 3300-3400 MHz and 3400-3600 MHz Bands.

TRAI also said that entire available spectrum should be put to auction in the forthcoming auction.

Some features of the recommendations are given below

Spectrum in 3300-3600 MHz band should be put to auction in the block size of 20 MHz and to avoid monopolization of this band, there should be a limit of 100 MHz per bidder.

No rollout obligations should be mandated for spectrum in 3300-3600 MHz band. However, to avoid any misuse of not mandating any roll-out obligations, the lock-in period for spectrum in this band for becoming eligible for spectrum trading should be 5 years instead of 2 years.

The Authority recommends that in case of 900 MHz bands, the new entrant should be allowed to bid for 5 MHz if at least one chunk of contiguous 5 MHz is available, else the minimum block size should be kept as 0.6 MHz.

The revised provisions of spectrum cap (i.e. 35 percent Overall cap and a Cap of 50 percent on the combined spectrum holding in the sub-1 GHz bands) should be extended to 3300-3600 MHz band also.

Additionally, in 3300- 600 MHz band, there should be a spectrum holding cap of 100 MHz per licensee.

The regulator also suggested that there is an urgent need of audit for all allocated spectrum both commercial as well as spectrum allocated to various PSUs/ Government organizations. This should be done by an independent agency on a regular basis.

For those who are not aware, the last auction for access spectrum was held in October 2016 wherein around 60 percent spectrum remained unsold.