Hope govt will lower proposed 5G auction base price, says Airtel

India’s third largest telecom service provider, Bharti Airtel, hopes that the Union government would bring down the proposed base price for 5G auctions for the company to consider participating in the airwave sale.

In an investor conference call, Gopal Vittal, chief executive officer of Bharti Airtel, said since 5G requires large quantity of spectrum and investments in the range of Rs 50,000-55,000 crore and “clearly these are prices we can’t afford and they are exorbitant, we hope the government will bring down pricing and then we would look seriously at 5G.”

He added that the company was focused on improving business without change in price at a time when the market place is “brutal” in terms of pricing structure.