It has recently come to light that more than a whopping 1500MHz of spectrum will be ready to go under the hammer in the year to come, allowing mobile service providers to greatly expand their network reach in India. This upcoming auction can definitely be expected to earn the government a massive amount of money too.
Among the bands from which the new spectrum will be released is the 700MHz band which can be utilized for the all-important 4G connectivity roll-out that India needs on a properly commercial scale. Moreover, this band is reportedly also being considered to be the carrier of 5G connectivity whenever it’s made available in the distant future.
93MHz of radio waves could be made available for buying from this 700MHz band. Furthermore, the CDMA-friendly 800MHz band could have 117.5MHz of its spectrum sold in 2015. And that’s not all; 184MHz and 104MHz of radio-waves from the 900MHz and 1800MHz bands, respectively are in contention for being auctioned as well.
Coming to the 2300MHz band which is used for broadband wireless access, 320MHz spectrum will be on sale, while 720MHz will be auctioned off from the 2500MHz band. According to a post on The Times of India, the government of India is also planning to introduce a fresh 300MHz spectrum for mobile services by 2017, apart from an additional 200MHz by 2020.
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Among all these bands, 700MHz is the most valuable one at the moment. Proof of this claim is the fact that TRAI has announced that the reserve price for this spectrum must be four times that of the 1800MHz band. The spectrum auction in 2015 is hence all set to be one of the most profitable ventures for the current government.