Overpriced 700 MHz fails to sell at auction


By Jonathan Nally
Wednesday, 12 October, 2016

Overpriced 700 MHz fails to sell at auction

India’s recent spectrum auction has closed with 40% of the spectrum offer remaining unsold, and with the government securing only a fraction of money it was hoping to secure.

The five-day-long auction raised only US$9.8 billion instead of the US$83.9 billion the government had hoped to secure.

The auction had offered a total of 2354 MHz across the 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1.8 GHz, 2.1 GHz, 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz bands.

Spectrum in the 700 MHz and 900 MHz bands went mostly unsold.

Analysts have blamed the government’s insistence on attaching high prices to the bands — US$1.7 billion per MHz for the 700 MHz band — for the failure to sell the spectrum.

Vodafone spent a total of US$3 billion across various bands, with other operators spending between roughly US$1.5 billion and US$2.1 billion for their allocations.

Image courtesy NASA.

Related News

Private 5G networks on the verge of mainstream adoption

Annual investments in private 5G networks for vertical industries are projected to grow at a CAGR...

AT&T picks Etherstack for IWF tech, makes VoLTE call over satellite

Etherstack's IWF solution is being deployed into data centres across the US to provide...

WA's emergency warning system rolled out in Canada

Life-saving technology that was developed in Western Australia, with funding from the WA...


  • All content Copyright © 2025 Westwick-Farrow Pty Ltd