New Delhi : A day before India’s biggest spectrum auction begins, the government today said telecom firms should “tank up” radiowaves to bridge shortfall in their holdings as the next such sale may not happen for “quite some time”.
“After this auction we believe, there will no spectrum shortage in India. This problem of spectrum scarcity affecting quality of service will be history,” Telecom Secretary JS Deepak told PTI. Terming the auctions as a “great opportunity to tank up on spectrum”, he said not doing so will place operators at a competitive disadvantage vis-a-vis others.
The same opportunity in terms of the variety of spectrum that is being placed on the block will not come for quite some time, he added, reports PTI.
“After this auction if there is unsold spectrum, it means there is no demand for it… So we will harmonise spectrum purchased by operators in all bands including 1800 Mhz and 2100 Mhz so that we can make it contiguous and multiply its efficiency for operators. Only after harmonisation process is complete, will we think of the next auction,” Deepak said. India’s biggest telecom players Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and new entrant Reliance Jio Infocomm are amongst 7 companies that are in fray for the bidding.
