Telecom Spectrum

The government has chosen to allocate satellite communication spectrum through administrative means, rejecting the auction route supported by Indian billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Bharti Mittal

Officials said the 5-lakh mark would be optimal for nationwide 5G coverage

Five rounds of auction saw telcos focus on four spectrum bands

With lower EMD and more focus on renewals, auctions may be muted

Indian telecom operators have urged the government to allocate the 6GHz band for 5G, but the broadband services providers want the entire 6GHz spectrum for improving Wi-Fi services

TRAI to begin new consultation on allocation of satellite spectrum

The Department of Telecom has extended the last date for submission of applications for spectrum auction by 14 days to May 6, according to an amended notice issued on Monday. The last date for withdrawal of applications has been extended by 9 days to May 17, and the final list of bidders will be declared on May 20, as per the amendment. "Application must be submitted in hard copy...on May 6, 2024, during office hours," the amendment to the Notice Inviting Application (NIA) said. Earlier, the last date to submit an application was April 22. The government will auction eight spectrum bands for mobile phone services at a base price of about Rs 96,317 crore. All the available spectrum in the 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz, 2,100 MHz, 2,300 MHz, 2,500 MHz, 3,300 MHz, and 26 GHz bands are part of the auction. The spectrum will be assigned for a period of 20 years and successful bidders will be allowed to make payments in 20 equal annual instalments. The DoT has provided an option to surr

Telecom regulator TRAI on Thursday sought stakeholder views on the auction of new three spectrum bands-- 3737.5 GHz, 37.540 GHz and 42.543.5 GHz for mobile services, as it released a consultation paper to discuss issues related to pricing, validity and payment terms of these radiowaves. This is the first time three spectrum bands in 37-37.5 Ghz, 37.5-40 Ghz and 42.5-43.5 Ghz are being proposed for the auction. The proposal will make available 4,000 Mhz spectrum for 5G services in the future. These blocks are different from the bands -- 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz, 2,100 MHz, 2,300 MHz, 2,500 MHz, 3,300 MHz, and 26 GHz which that be put on the block in the upcoming spectrum auctions scheduled for June 6. "The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has today released a Consultation Paper on 'Auction of Spectrum in 37-37.5 GHz, 37.5-40 GHz and 42.5-43.5 GHz bands Identified for IMT," an official release said. TRAI, in the consultation paper, has sought industry's opinion on vari

The government seems to have resisted raising the reserve prices of usually sought-after spectrum bands in key telecom circles

The upcoming spectrum auction will start from May 20, according to the notice inviting application released by the Department of Telecom on Friday. Government will auction eight spectrum bands for mobile phone services at a base price of Rs 96,317.65 crore. Spectrum which is held by certain companies undergoing insolvency processes as well as frequencies expiring this year will also be put on auction.

Swedish telecom company Ericsson on Monday said that it has deployed 1,00,000 massive MIMO 5G radios for Bharti Airtel across its 12 circles. In a regulatory filing, Airtel said that it has deployed energy-efficient Ericsson radio system products and solutions from Ericsson's 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) and MINI-LINK (microwave) mobile transport portfolios. "Ericsson has successfully deployed 1,00,000 Massive MIMO (Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output) 5G radios for Bharti Airtel across its 12 circles within a record time of 500+ days," the statement said. "Ericson is a long-standing partner of Airtel and we are happy to partner them in achieving this milestone of deploying 1,00,000 5G radios across 12 Airtel circles. We have over 65 million customers on our network who are now enjoying blazing fast unlimited 5G data at no additional cost," said Randeep Sekhon, CTO of Bharti Airtel. Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) 5G radio technology helps in faster data transmission using multi

Debt-ridden telecom firm Vodafone Idea on Tuesday said it will need 6-7 months to roll out 5G services after securing funding, for which discussions with investors are underway. Vodafone Idea CEO Akshaya Moondra during the company's earnings call said that the telco is in discussion with various vendors for the 5G roll-out as well as developing use cases. "Having made large investments and no monetisation happening, I think the industry does need to see some movement towards monetisation. Let's say if we are launching 5G probably in the next 6-7 months time then we will have a better idea what is happening on the monetisation front. After funding is there, we will need some time to roll out. Let's say 6-7 months," Moondra said. He said the company will be able to roll out 5G only after funding is in place. However, he refused to reply to any question on the status of funding as it is in the discussion stage. "As for funding, it is in progress with investors. Given the nature of the

Bharti Airtel has prepaid Rs 8,325 crore to the Department of Telecom towards part prepayment of the deferred liabilities pertaining to spectrum acquired in the 2015 auction, the company said on Tuesday. Bharti Airtel won spectrum worth Rs 29,129.08 crore in the auctions that were held in March 2015. The company had paid Rs 11,374.7 crore, while the upfront amount due was Rs 7,832.20 crore. "Bharti Airtel has prepaid Rs 8,325 crores to the Department of Telecom (Government of India) towards part prepayment of the deferred liabilities pertaining to spectrum acquired in the auction of the year 2015, which were at an interest cost of 10 per cent," the company said in a statement.

Industry body Digital Infrastructure Providers Association (DIPA) has flagged "critical issues" faced by telecom infrastructure players in securing permissions for deploying infrastructure in Uttar Pradesh, particularly in Noida and Ghaziabad. DIPA has urged the Uttar Pradesh Government to clear all the pending applications at the earliest for faster rollout of 5G services in the state. Raising the issue, DIPA's Director-General T R Dua said that telecom infrastructure providers are unable to get permissions for deploying infrastructure in the state, especially in Noida and Ghaziabad. This, despite applying over the online portal 'Nivesh Mitra', the single window system, providing all the necessary documents and depositing the application fee, the association said. DIPA members include ATC Telecom, Indus Towers, Ascend Telecom, Summit Digitel, Sterlite Technologies, Crest Digitel, Suyog Telematics, Signotox Towers, iBus Infrastructure, Applied Solar Technologies (AST), CloudExtel a

Rollout of 5G network in India has been the fastest in the world but revenue has not picked up as apps that are generating 80 per cent of the traffic are not paying for the network, a top official of the telecom industry body COAI said. While speaking with PTI at India Mobile Congress, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) Director General S P Kochhar said telecom players do not want to burden consumers but someone has to bear the cost of investment being made in the network. "The 5G rollout has been very good. It has set world records with the fastest 5G rollout. But having said that, I'm a little constrained to say that the revenues for the telecom industry have not picked up," Kochhar said. He said a huge amount of capital expenditure is being invested to roll out these networks. "The private players who are rolling this out definitely expect the return on that. That unfortunately is not happening on the scale as which it should. 5G rollout has brought in 4-5 large ...

Telecom major Jio has topped across nine mobile network parameters in the first half of 2023, Broadband speed and quality research firm Ookla said on Tuesday. According to Ookla, Jio emerged as the number 1 network in India, winning all nine awards for mobile networks in the market, including all awards for 5G networks. The achievement is a first for any service provider anywhere in the world, it said. Among the nine parameters, Jio bagged the top rank for best 5G gaming experience network in the country with a score of 87.09, video experience with 86.23, mobile gaming experience (77.31), mobile video experience (77.04), fastest 5G mobile network with a speed score of 335.75, and best mobile coverage, with a score of 801. "Over the past seven years, we've set several global benchmarks, propelling India into digital prominence. Today, our ambitions are even higher, and our faith in India's digital future is as strong as ever," Reliance Jio Chairman Akash Ambani said. "I am particul

In 2012, the Supreme Court rejected the policy of first-come-first-served through which spectrum was given to telcos by the government

The report noted that the United States' decision to make the full 6 GHz band available for unlicensed use has set a trend, influencing countries like Brazil and Saudi Arabia

Debt-ridden Vodafone Idea has sought 30 days more time to pay around Rs 1,680 crore for spectrum auction instalment due on Thursday, a senior company official said on Wednesday. The company has proposed to pay the amount with interest. "We have submitted a letter to DoT that we propose to pay the spectrum auction instalments of Rs 1,680 crore towards the 2022 auction, which is due on August 17, by availing the grace period of 30 days with interest, in accordance with the terms of NIA (Notice Inviting Applications)," Vodafone Idea chief financial officer Murthy GVAS said during the earnings calls. The development comes even after one of the promoters has confirmed to the company that it will provide direct or indirect financial support to the extent of Rs 2,000 crore in the event of any fund requirement for meeting impending payment obligations. The company has also acquired a 5G spectrum in mid-band (3300 megahertz) and millimetre wave in the 26 GHz band in July 2022 spectrum ...

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has relaxed spectrum trading norms by allowing operators to trade radiowaves in a frequency band as per the block size notified in the last auction, according to guidelines published on Wednesday. The modification in spectrum trading guidelines allows telecom operators to lease spectrum to captive non-public network licence holders that use radiowaves for internal business requirements. "The block sizes of Access Spectrum to be traded in different spectrum band(s) shall be as per the block size(s) as specified in the NIA (notice inviting application) for the latest auction held. Further, if there is any residual spectrum to be traded, it may be considered on pro-rata basis," the new guideline said. Earlier, telecom operators were allowed to trade spectrum in block size ranging 1.25 megahertz (Mhz) paired spectrum to up to 20 Mhz in higher frequency bands of 2,300 and 2,500 Mhz. The modification allows telecom operators to trade spectrum in