High 5G! Now to slip into the ecosystem

Telecom companies have put up earnest money for auction of 5G spectrum. This is in line with expectations that they will bid for around a quarter of the airwaves GoI has put on sale in this round. This is in step with previous spectrum auctions where muted interest saw bidding converge on high reserve prices and chunks of frequencies remaining unsold. Hopes of a better administered mechanism for selling airwaves were raised this time with GoI having thrown a lifeline to the debt-laden industry through easier revenue-sharing and scrapping of spectrum-use fees. But the administered base price for spectrum, even after being reduced considerably, remains much higher than in other countries. In this, the government is upholding a tradition of charging high upfront fees, rather than gaining tax revenue through faster rollout of the latest generation of telecommunications services.