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Spectrum to be auctioned every year, says telecom secretary Deepak

Pankaj Gujral, New Delhi | 01 Mar 2017

The government will auction Spectrum every year, said J S Deepak, secretary of the department of telecommunications (DoT) at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

“We are looking to do a spectrum auction every year so that telcos can plan their needs, whether they need to trade it, buy it from someone else or come to the auction. This ensures complete certainty and policy stability,” said Deepak.

He informed that the DoT would send request to the telecom regulatory authority of India (TRAI) to seek recommendations on the next auction. “... which, I believe would be held between July and December. It will be annual auction done every year. How much of spectrum to be sold, the price, newer spectrum bands will be considered.”

He said that the government is not worried about unsold spectrum. “We are not worried if there is no demand for spectrum. We don't get hassled if spectrum remains unsold. But we would like to give opportunity to the industry to buy spectrum as and when they need,” said Deepak.

He said that there would be only five operators in the market. He also said that the DoT would seek recommendation on auction of high frequency Spectrum that can be used for 5G services.