Govt sets 5G ball rolling, says spectrum auction by year-end or early 2020

Union telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday said the 5G spectrum auction will be conducted this year-end or early next year.

“The communications policy is already in place, and by the end of the year or the beginning of the next year, we propose to go for auction of spectrum. We are very sure that India’s auction of spectrum will be done in fair and transparent manner,” he said at an event here.

Initially in June, the Department of Telecom, outlined plans to hold the next spectrum sale first since 2016 by December 2019.

Under the scheme, the government plans to auction around 8,293.95 MHz of airwaves at an estimated total base price of Rs 5.86 trillion.