The government of India seeks to auction more than 10.5 GHz of capacity spread across eight frequency bands

The government of India officially kicked off a new spectrum auction yesterday, to award additional 5G frequencies to local telecom operators.

The government is auctioning more than 10.5 GHz of capacity in eight frequency bands for the provision of a range of services, including 5G. The bands being offered at the process include the 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1.8 GHz, 2.1 GHz, 2.3 GHz, 2.5 GHz, 3.3 GHz and 26 GHz.

“To augment existing telecom services and maintain continuity of services, the government will hold this spectrum auction. This is in line with the government’s commitment to facilitate affordable, state-of-art high-quality telecom services to all the citizens,” the government said in a statement.

The spectrum licenses on offer have a combined reserve price of INR962.4 billion ($11.53 billion) but the expectation is that some of the frequencies will not attract bids.

The new 5G spectrum will be assigned for 20 years and successful bidders will be allowed to make payments in 20 equal annual installments, according to the DoT.

“Spectrum acquired through this auction can be surrendered after a minimum period of 10 years,” the DoT said. “There will be no spectrum usage charges for spectrum acquired in this auction,” it added.

The DoT previously confirmed that it received applications from local carriers Reliance Jio Infocomm, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea. Reliance Jio Infocomm has made the highest earnest money deposit (EMD) for the upcoming auction, positioning itself to bid for the maximum number of radiowaves, followed by Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea. The EMD amounts determine the bidding points each carrier receives, which affects their ability to bid for the number of circles and spectrum quantity they desire.

Mock auctions were conducted on June 3, June 13 and June 14 to familiarize the bidders with the auction platform.

Previous reports cited sources with knowledge of the matter, stating that the 5G auction will only draw a few bids from Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea (Vi) for renewing their frequencies. The permits of Bharti Airtel and Vi will expire in 2024 in some of India’s geographic circles. Airtel’s airwave renewals this year are in the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz bands in the circles of J&K, Odisha, Bihar, UP-East, West Bengal and Assam. Vi faces spectrum renewals in West Bengal (900 MHz and 1800 MHz) and UP-West (900 MHz).

Earlier this year, the DoT confirmed it will not auction the 600 MHz band in the upcoming spectrum auction, as the body aims to conduct more studies to ensure there is no interference with satellite operations.

India completed its first 5G spectrum auction in July 2022. Reliance Jio walked away with the most spectrum, having spent $11 billion. Airtel won spectrum worth $5.4 billion, while Vodafone received spectrum worth $2.4 billion. Finally, Adani purchased spectrum worth approximately $27 million, which it will use to offer private 5G network services.

Reliance Jio Infocomm has already completed the rollout of 5G technology in India. The carrier has been rapidly expanding its 5G network using Standalone (SA) architecture since October 2022. Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel previously said it expected to cover the entire country with 5G technology by March 2024.

Rival operator Vodafone Idea is expected to launch its 5G network this year and is currently in negotiations with vendors for 5G contracts, according to recent reports.