The spectrum auction covers 2,200 megahertz of available airwaves
India’s Department of Telecommunications has confirmed that seven telecommunications operators have submitted applications to participate in an upcoming spectrum auction.
Interested operators include Reliance Jio Infocomm, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices, Reliance Communications and Aircel – the two latter companies agreed to merge their mobile operations last week.
State-run telecommunications firm BSNL will not take part in the spectrum auction due to financial reasons. India’s other state-owned operator, MTNL will not take part either.
Norwegian telecom operator Telenor will not take part in the process. In July this year, the European company said that proposed spectrum prices do not offer an acceptable level of return. At that time, the Nordic firm said it is evaluating its options regarding its presence in the Indian telecommunications market.
The Indian government previously said it aims to raise a minimum of 5.6 trillion rupees ($83 billion) from the upcoming spectrum auction.
Mobile operators Vodafone and Idea Cellular are expected to bid aggressively in the tender as they currently have 4G spectrum in half of the country’s 22 telecom circles. Rival operators Airtel and Reliance Jio have pan-India spectrum.
The spectrum auction, which is scheduled to begin on Oct. 1, aims to award a total of 2,200 megahertz of spectrum across the 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2.1 GHz, 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz bands. The government also said the new licenses will be valid for 20 years.
Indian regulator to issue consultation process for M2M, IoT technologies
Also in India, telecommunications regulator Trai expects to launch a consultation process for the creation of a framework to regulate machine-to-machine communication and “internet of things” technologies, The Economic Times reports.
According to the report, the consultation paper dealing with the subject is likely to be issued during September.
“Today the concept of connected homes is gaining ground but there is no framework for M2M or IoT [in India],” a source said.
