Trai may have to discuss and rethink its proposals on 5G spectrum

DCC might write to regulator soon; Points include 20-year licence instead of 30

The Digital Communica­tions Commission (DCC) is believed to have discussed and referred back on Friday some of the recommendations made by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on 5G spectrum.

Considering that the government is planning for auctions to be held in June, sources say the DCC’s letter is expected to be sent to the regulator in a few days.

While details of the issues that were flagged by the DCC in the meeting are not clear, a Department of Telecomm­unications (DoT) committee set up for this purpose has made some wide-ranging recommendations which include a 20-year licence period instead of 30 years.

The Minister of Communications Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday that the DoT is working to resolve industry concerns on spectrum pricing.  

The DoT committee has also suggested referring back some aspects of the minimum roll out obligation. It believes the requirements in non-metros should be reduced. The telcos have opposed any roll out obligation.

The committee has also earmarked the spectrum bands which will be reserved for state-owned BSNL for its future foray into 5G.  Sources say these include 40 MHz between 3630 to 3670 MHz in the key 3.5 GHz band, another 400 MHz in the millimetre band between 24.25 GHz to 24.65 GHz and also around 10 MHz in the 600 MHz band.

But BSNL has to pay the same price as the highest bidder to get the spectrum.

Sources say that the DoT committee had suggested that the TRAI recommendation for mixed use of the 27.5-28.5 GHz band (for both telcos and satellite operators) through auctioning should be referred back to TRAI as it might be better to reserve it only for satellite communications.

Satellite players have been clamouring for reserving this band at an administrative price exclusively for them.  

Telcos have been unhappy that the base price fixed by the regulator for a period of 30 years is virtually the same as what they had recommended in 2018 at Rs 492 crore for a pan-India 1MHz spectrum. This is because of the regulator’s formula that the 20-year base price which the telcos recommended has to be multiplied by 1.5 for a 30-year licence period.

However, for a 20-year lice­nce period, the regulator has cut the base price of the 3.5 GHz band sharply by 36 per cent to Rs 317 crore for a pan-India 1MHz of spectrum from what it had recommended earlier.

On the other hand, the government, as part of its telecom package, had announced that it would extend the licensing period to 30 years. On the contentious E band which is used for backhaul, opinion among stakeholders is divided. Some say it should be auctioned; others say it should be given at an administrative price.

On this matter, the DoT committee has, according to sources, favoured the former and has recommended that the base price in case of an auction should be referred to the regulator.

Telcos have been pushing for an auction of the spectrum but while Bharti Airtel has suggested it should be bundled with 5G spectrum, Reliance Jio wants it to go up for auction independently.