Reliance Jio wants to defer 5G allocations until telecom operators conducts trails and develop cases for the airways which are priced enormously high. This is unprecedented as it is for the first time Jio seems to have common grounds with rivals Bharti Airtel and Vodafone. Jio, like other telecom providers, wants 4G airways to be auctioned right away, to keep pace with rising demand for data and ease network congestion.
This implies a change in Jio’s stance as the company had previously sought auctions of $G and %G airways at the earliest. Airtel wanted auction of all other bands excluding 5G aside for a year. Vodafone and Idea wants delay in the sale of all the other spectrums.
Airtel and Vodafone had already stated that they would not purchase 5G airways at the price set by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). The companies termed it too expensive at over seven times the price for 5G bands in South Korea.
The Department of Telecommunication said it planned to auction off 4G and 5G airwaves in December 2019 or early 2012. The department is yet to decide on the price recommendation given by Trai. The regulation has recommended a pan-India base price worth INR 492 crores per MHz for 5G radio waves in the 3.3-3.6 GHz bands. It also mandated that telcos buy in a block of 20 MHz. As a result, an operator will have to pay at least INR 9,840 crore for pan-India 5G airwaves.
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