New Delhi.. Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has indicated a decrease in the reserve price of spectrum for the upcoming auction. The telecom minister on Monday promised an ‘improvement’ in pricing amid concerns over the exorbitant price of spectrum from other bands, including 5G. He said that spectrum will be auctioned in this financial year.
Prasad said at the India Mobile Congress 2019 that the government is aware and aware of the challenges and problems of the telecom industry. He said that spectrum auction will be done in this financial year, we are making some improvements in the pricing of spectrum.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) last year recommended the sale of 8,644 MHz spectrum at a base price of Rs 4.9 lakh crore. It also includes spectrum for 5G services. But telecom companies struggling with financial crisis had pleaded that the proposed price is not affordable and too high.
Some companies had said that in countries like South Korea, Spain, UK and Italy, the average price of 5G band is Rs 84 crore / MHz while TRAI recommended Rs 492 crore 5-6 times higher price for the same band.