According to India's Economic Times, the country's three major mobile operators have called on regulators to lower the floor price of 3.5GHz spectrum for planned 5G auctions.
In a document filed with India's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRAI), operators insisted on lowering spectrum prices to ensure they could set aside funds for 5G deployments.
Reliance Jio reportedly demanded a 95 percent reduction in the floor price of the mid-band spectrum, while Bharti Airtel asked to keep it within 10 percent of the 2018 recommended price.
Jio also recommends keeping the price of millimeter wave spectrum at 0.01% of the price of medium spectrum, an option supported by Vodafone Idea.
Barty did the math, not including spectrum costs, and its investment in the nation's 5G network could be as high as Rs 500 billion (C114 note: about $6.8 billion). The operator said it would need to increase revenue by 20 percent to break even, but noted that operators in other countries typically struggle to increase revenue by 10 percent.
The operator also recommends giving away 600MHz spectrum under strict deployment obligations to improve rural broadband coverage.
All three carriers are piloting 5G networks, and they are urging the government to release the necessary spectrum, especially millimeter wave spectrum.
(Jiang Junmu)
![$22.5 billion: U.S. carriers continue to contribute generously to spectrum auctions[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)