Spectrum sale only in second-half of 2019: DoT

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The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) would be in a position to hold the next auctions in the second half of 2019, a top government official said, putting to rest all speculation about any airwave sale this fiscal year ending March, 2019.
"The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has given preliminary recommendations. However, the (5G) task force has given broader set of spectrum bands. The Department of Telecom (DoT) is concurrently working on both," telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan said Monday.
“DoT will be ready to hold spectrum auction in the second half of 2019,” she told ET.
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The government so far had not yet defined auction timelines. DoT officials had privately conceded that an auction is unlikely in FY19, given that the industry is saddled with huge debt, and is facing pressure on revenue and profitability. In August, Trai recommended the auction of airwaves across seven 4G bands, besides 5G spectrum. The regulator slashed the base price of the premium 700 MHz band by 43% to Rs 6,568 crore a unit and set Rs 492 crore per unit as the minimum rate for 5G.
Reliance Jio wants all available bandwidth to be offered immediately and has no problems with the prices recommended by the Trai. Second-ranked Bharti Airtel wants a “swift” auction but only of 4G airwaves in the year ending March 2019 at reduced starting prices and it backed a 5G spectrum sale only in FY20. Market leader Vodafone Idea does not want any auction until 2020 and has called on the government to fix the health of the telecom sector in the interim.
Separately, Sundararajan sought active participation from states in facilitating deployment of telecom infrastructure which it aims to increase by as much as three fold by 2022.
"We aim to increase from 18 lakh to 50 lakh base transreceiver stations, and from 14 lakh kilometres of optic fibre cable to 55 lakh kilometres by 2022," Sundararajan said, adding that it could only be done with the active collaboration with states.
She was addressing a first-of-its kind workshop with representation from state governments to accelerate the ongoing BharatNet program that aims to connect 2.5 lakh gram panchayats or village blocks.
The target to achieve $100 billion of investment and creation of four million new jobs with $120 billion of additional revenue annually with contribution of $670 billion to GDP, she said, can happen through contribution from states.
Currently, only 10% jobs are created with $20 billion of investment that provides $30 billion to government in revenue and $ 170 billion contribution to the country's GDP.
Sundararajan also said that the states should rationalise Right-of-Way (RoW) charges, and added that the Centre is bringing in private teleom service providers and public sector companies for Wi-Fi thrust which would eventually help achieve the BharatNet ambition.
The DoT is also going to sign Memorandum of Undertaking (MoU) with state governments to ensure custodianship of telecom infrastructure which acts as a catalyst for the prestigious Digital India program.
"We are telling states if they need dark fibre, they can be incentivised which will create a demand-based pull," Sundararajan said, and added that telcos have provided few business models, and have provided advance money to accelerate Wi-Fi initiative.
Telecom carriers, however, wanted to take fibre to the towers and enable developmental institutions such as schools and healthcare centres.
The department is also setting up nodal officers in every state for coordination on the ambitious project with the Centre, a

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