Cabinet approves next round of spectrum auction

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the next round of spectrum auction to be held in March in which frequencies of 2,251 megahertz would be sold, Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

The government will not put on sale spectrum frequencies that have been identified for 5G services.

The government will put on auction 2,251 MHz of spectrum in the frequency bands of 700 MHz, 800Mhz, 900 Mhz, 2100 Mhz, 2300 Mhz and 2500 MHz, Prasad said.

“The notice inviting application shall be issued in this month and by auction will be conducted by March,” Prasad said.

The Digital Communications Commission, the apex decision making body of the Department of Telecom, in May had approved the spectrum auction plan worth Rs 5.22 lakh crore which included radiowaves for 5G services as well.

According to Reliance Jio, spectrum worth Rs 3.92 lakh crore is lying unused with the DoT for auction.

The telecom ministry gets an average revenue share of around 5 per cent as spectrum usage charge from telecom operators which is calculated based on their spectrum holding of companies and 8 per cent as licence fee from the revenue earned by the companies from sale of communication services.