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Higher spectrum price: A concerning issue for telecom operators

BNE ADMIN


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New Delhi: Expressing concern over high spectrum price, a Parliamentary Panel on Wednesday asked the government to pay due attention to the issues raised by telecom operators and take steps for early rollout of the 5G services.

The Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology, chaired by Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor, in its report expressed concern about the 5G rollout delay that will deprive the country of taking advantage of various benefits of 5G when other countries of the world have made noticeable progress in the deployment of the technology.

"It is high time that 5G should be rolled out in India 115, in some specific use cases… The Committee reiterates that the Department need t review all their policies relating to SG so that the country is not left behind in the race for 5G," the panel said in the report.

The panel said that it desires that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) may be impressed to expedite its recommendations on the 5G spectrum so that the 5G auction can be held at the earliest.

The panel noted that the pricing of the 5G spectrum in the country is exorbitantly high as compared to other countries in the world and there is a need to review the spectrum pricing by taking into account factors such as per capita and ARPU (average revenue per user) in the country.

As per December 2021 quarter financial reports, VIL had reported ARPU of Rs Bharti Airtel Rs 163 and Reliance Jio Rs 151.6.

"The Committee had recommended the Department to look into the issue of high spectrum price and come out with a convincing spectrum pricing policy that is sustainable to all," the panel report said. Telecom industry body COAI had informed the panel that Trai had recommended Rs 492 crore per megahertz as a reserved price for spectrum in 3300 MHz to 3600 MHz for 5G, which is far higher than the auctioned spectrum price in other countries.

The panel was informed that a comparison of unit pricing of the 5G spectrum with other countries indicates that it is 7 times costlier than the UK, 14 times costlier than Australia, 35 times costlier than Spain, and 70 times costlier than Austria.

Bharti Airtel has informed the panel that the price recommended by Trai is exorbitantly high and ranges from 3-70 times the market-determined price of the spectrum in other countries in absolute terms and is 16 times the price in relative terms.

Source- PTI

BNE ADMIN