Why this year's spectrum sale may be a tame affair

livemint.com:

₹10,000 crore from the auctions that it plans to hold by the end of FY24, the officials cited above said, which will be a fraction of the record ₹1.5 trillion raised in 2022 when the government sold 72,097.85 MHz in the first-ever sale of 5G airwaves. Telcos may refrain from buying fresh airwaves, and may focus on renewing licences expiring between February and August this year, the officials said on the condition of anonymity. “In the last auction where 5G spectrum was put on sale, more than 100 MHz (units) of spectrum was given out to Airtel and Jio.

Vodafone also took more than 70 Mhz, which is far higher than the 20–30 Mhz we used to give out in previous auctions. They have large spectrum pools now, so this time, they will go for renewing the older licences that will expire in the 4G bands of 1,800 Mhz and 900 Mhz," one of the two officials said. “We don’t expect more than ₹10,000 crore to come from this auction," the second official said, asking not to be named.

A query emailed to a DoT spokesperson remained unanswered. The government will not put the 600 Mhz band on sale as it expects little demand for the pricier spectrum, the official added. In 2022, the 700 Mhz band was put on sale and Reliance Jio was the only buyer of 20 Mhz in the band for ₹39,270 crore.

Older telcos are likely to have some licences in the 1,800 Mhz and 900 Mhz bands expiring next month, and they may be given provisional spectrum on the prices determined in the 2022 auction, the first official said, adding the ministry will take cabinet approval to make this temporary exemption in the coming weeks. The carriers will be asked to pay the auction-determined prices or the balance once the auctions in 2024 are completed. By the end of January, DoT