In early August, India completed several delayed 5G spectrum auctions. However, according to the Economic Times in India, industry executives said that although the government and telecom companies are rushing to launch 5G commercial services as soon as possible, major progress is not expected until around December. They said that only by December will high-income groups in most large cities and other first-tier cities be covered by the rollout of 5G services.
A total of 72097.85MHz of spectrum was auctioned, including the 600MHz, 700MHz, 800MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, 2100MHz, 2300MHz, 3300MHz and 26GHz frequency bands, valid for 20 years. The Indian government received a total of 15.6 trillion Indian rupees ($19 billion) in bids.
India’s Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea three telecom operators and India’s richest man Gautam Adani Group participated in the auction. Reliance Jio became the biggest buyer of the 5G spectrum auction, bidding $11 billion for the 20-year right to use nearly half of the spectrum.
India’s largest telecom operator, Bharti Airtel, is not far behind, saying that it will launch 5G services in major Indian cities in August. By March 2024, Bharti Airtel’s 5G service will cover all Indian towns and some key rural areas. Bharti Airtel has drawn up an action plan for 5G coverage of 5,000 towns in India. At the auction, Bharti Airtel bid about $5.5 billion for the 19868MHz spectrum.
According to local media reports, Vodafone Idea is also sending SMS notifications to users in Delhi, indicating that the company’s network services are being upgraded, and subsequent users will enjoy mobile services with wider coverage and faster network connections.
Indian Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that after the auction, the Indian government held a meeting to approve spectrum allocation, so India will launch 5G networks in first-tier cities in October and expand to other regions next year.
It is reported that India’s 5G service will cover 13 major cities in the first batch, including Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Pune, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Chandigarh.
In the first phase, only those regions with a high proportion of 5G devices will be covered. According to industry data, there are currently around 50 million phones that support 5G across all operators’ networks in India.
