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Spectrum auction, 5G trials top Telecom Ministry agenda for new government
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SME Times News Bureau | 23 May, 2019
Preparing the Cabinet note for spectrum auction, rolling out of the new
digital communications policy and establishing regulatory sandboxes, 5G
technology trials, policy on experimentation and trial spectrum for
technologies in June, will top the agenda of the Union Telecom Ministry
over the next three months once the new government takes over.
With
election results indicative of a return of the Modi government, the
telecom ministry has started getting its act together by working on the
pending schedule of the last government which was on halt for the polls
while awaiting a new government.
Another area awaiting decisions
are settling issues on merger and transfers of licenses of the mergers
and acquisitions taken so far -- such as Airtel-Telenor, Airtel-TTSL,
Vodafone-Idea among others.
The Department of Telecom is also
preparing a Cabinet note for spectrum auction for the new government.
The much-awaited spectrum auction will finally happen in the second half
of 2019 where a whopping 8,293.95 Mhz of telecom frequencies at an
estimated total base price of Rs 5.77 lakh crore are expected to go
under the hammer.
The new government will also face challenges
since the telecom companies are still facing losses due to low tariffs
on hyper competition and huge spectrum dues though the market has
improved.
Licence fee mop-up by the government in the December
quarter rose 0.03 per cent sequentially to Rs 2,890 crore, while
spectrum usage charge (SUC) rose by 2 per cent to Rs 1,064 crore, data
from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) showed.
The
industry's blended monthly average revenue per user - a key performance
metric - from wireless services increased over 4 per cent sequentially
to Rs 70.13 in the December quarter. The telecom sector's Adjusted Gross
Revenue shrank by a small 0.24 per cent sequentially to Rs 36,054 crore
in the December quarter, the Trai report said.
Still the tariffs
are low and telcos have huge debts and that makes it difficult for the
government to anticipate what kind of response the spectrum auction will
generate as India gears up to meet the 5G rollout globally in 2020.
The
pressure on the government for some financial relief would also be put
by the industry as they might seek deferment of spectrum dues period or
cutting down of licence fees.
The most prominent among the plans
are the task of issuing 5G network trial licenses to the telcos along
with the spectrum and also preparing the Cabinet note for spectrum
auction in November, 2019.
The allocation will take place as soon
as the new government takes charge, which could be in June, and
depending on their readiness, the telcos could start the initial 5G run
in the same month. The network trial licenses will be issued before
that, said an official source.
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