As per Ashwini Vaishnaw, minister for communications, electronics and information technology, and Railways, the auction of 5G spectrum will be held on schedule and within the stipulated timeline. The affirmation comes at a time when Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI’s) 5G recommendations on spectrum pricing, which was widely expected to come by March-end 2022, have been delayed by a few days to early April 2022.
The spectrum auctions are expected to be conducted in 2022 and thereafter the rollout of 5G mobile services within 2022-23 by private telecom providers.
As per sources, TRAI has affirmed that the recommendations (on 5G spectrum pricing and other modalities) will be released by early April 2022.
TRAI had, in November2022, released a detailed consultation paper to discuss threadbare the modalities for auction of spectrum across multiple bands, including pricing, quantum and other conditions, preparing the groundwork for upcoming 5G auctions.
