Telecommunications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the 5G spectrum auction will be held in early June
Telecommunications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the government will likely hold an auction of 5G spectrum in early June.
The minister said the Department of Telecommunications is working on the scheduled time and the process is underway to address industry concerns about spectrum pricing.
When asked about the spectrum auction schedule, Vaishnaw said expected in early June.
Setting the stage for the deployment of 5G services, telecom regulator MALE promoted a grand auction scheme worth more than Rs. 7.5 lakh crore at the base rate across multiple bands for radio waves allocated over 30 years.
“We’d love to run the auction on our timeline,” Vaishnaw said.
The minister said the Digital Communications Commission will review TRAI’s recommendations and approach them for clarification.
The watchdog has proposed an auction scheme larger than Rs. 7.5 lakh crore for more than 1 lakh megahertz of spectrum in case the government allocates it over a period of 30 years.
In the 20-year case, the total value of the proposed spectrum auction would be around Rs. 5.07 lakh crore starting price, after envelope calculation.
While TRAI has slashed spectrum prices by about 39 percent from previous prices, telecom operators say the recommended price is higher than the global benchmark.
