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New country profiles offer background to India’s mega auction

As reported this week, India is preparing to hold a mega auction of up to 104,000 MHz of spectrum across its 22 service areas, the equivalent of over 4,700 MHz of spectrum nationwide. Aside from the quantity of spectrum available, the auction is also notable for its diversity of spectrum bands for sale. A total of 10 bands will put to auction, including the 600 MHz band, which might be…
| Toby Youell

As reported this week, India is preparing to hold a mega auction of up to 104,000 MHz of spectrum across its 22 service areas, the equivalent of over 4,700 MHz of spectrum nationwide. Aside from the quantity of spectrum available, the auction is also notable for its diversity of spectrum bands for sale. A total of 10 bands will put to auction, including the 600 MHz band, which might be useful for providing 5G to India’s large rural population.

But as we note in a new India country profile, the other low-band for 5G, 700 MHz, has already been made available in India, twice, but was not sold. Both times, operators complained about the high reserve prices. On this third attempt, the regulator has reduced these prices by 39%, but it is still not clear if this is enough for its cash-strapped mobile operators.

More information is available in the India country profile. This week we also release updated country profiles for five important markets:

All country profiles are available to Spectrum Research Service subscribers here.

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