Cabinet approves auction of 5G spectrum

The Union Cabinet has approved a proposal the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to conduct 5G spectrum auction to be held by the end of next month.

The spectrum will be assigned to the successful bidders for providing 5G services to public and enterprises.

A total of 72097.85 MHz of spectrum with a validity period of 20 years will be put to auction to be held by the end of July 2022. The auction will be held for spectrum in various Low (600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz), Mid (3300 MHz) and High (26 GHz) frequency bands.

The auction will be held for spectrum in various low, medium and high frequency bands. It is expected that the spectrum will be utilised by telecom service providers to roll-out of 5G technology-based services capable of providing speed and capacities which would be about 10 times higher than the current 4G services.

Successful bidders will be allowed to make payment in 20 equal annual installments, duly protecting the net present value (NPV) at the interest rate of 7.2%.

Spectrum acquired through this auction can be surrendered after a minimum period of ten years. There will be no Spectrum Usage Charges (SUC) for spectrum acquired in this auction.

DoT has initiated the spectrum auction and Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) has been issued on 15 June 2022.

Further, the Cabinet also decided to enable the development and setting up of Private Captive Networks to spur a new wave of innovations in Industry 4.0 applications such as machine to machine communications, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) across automotive, health care, agriculture, energy and other sectors.

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