new Delhi: The much-awaited process is likely to take place in May if the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) gives its recommendations on rules regarding the 5G spectrum auction process by March this year. A senior official of the Department of Telecom gave this information. Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said earlier this month that TRAI has informed that it will submit its recommendations for 5G auction by March and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is completing other processes to conduct the auction at the earliest.
Telecom Secretary K Rajaraman told PTI, “Trai has indicated that they will send these (recommendations) by March. After that it will take a month to take a decision on this.” The government has taken 60 to 120 days to initiate the tendering phase after receiving recommendations from TRAI on spectrum auction in the past. Rajaraman said it would take two months for the DoT to start the auction from the day TRAI’s recommendations are received. According to the department, data from 5G will be downloaded 10 times faster than 4G service.
As per the procedure, the department seeks recommendations from TRAI on the price of spectrum, method of allotting it, size of its block, modalities of payment. TRAI consults with industry and other stakeholders and sends recommendations to DoT. As per the existing procedure, the apex decision making body in the DoT is the Digital Communications Commission (erstwhile Telecom Commission) which takes decisions on the recommendations of TRAI and then it is sent to the Cabinet for final approval. Rajaraman said that the DoT has selected MSTC as the auctioneer for the upcoming auction. (agency)
