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TV signals, cell phone signals, remote web communications, and radio stations operate on a spectrum. The radio waves utilized by FM or AM and cell phones are auctioned in India.
Like any other resource, spectrum is auctioned by the government to firms that can then utilize it to provide various services. The government holds spectrum auctions to improve communication efficiency, maximizing the gross benefits by advancing the resources.
Spectrum auction history
The spectrum auction history – In 1994, the first spectrum auction in India was conducted for 900MHz. With this emergence of the first spectrum in India comes BSNL and MTNL. With this, the auctions (The last and highest being for 1800MHz) continued in the years 1997,2000 and 2001. The validity of the broadcasting frequencies is expected to expire in 2021. With this comes the need or necessity for a fresh spectrum auction. The total amount/value of bids yielded for the spectrum was Rupees 65,789 cr only, after the government put 40% approximately of the sale of the spectrum and by selling 965MHz of the spectrum.
Spectrum auction
A spectrum can be defined as a collection of ghostly/imponderable radio waves or radio frequencies, wireless connections that enable us to call and receive calls from far around the world. Spectrum auctions can be defined as the government’s policy in which the country’s government sells the spectrum in terms of the auction and sells the rights to transmit signals from a particular band electrostatic spectrum.
These auctions are arranged and handled by the government. What happens is that these carriers try to buy up as many high-frequency waves as they can so that they have an advantage over their competitors. A company owns the more spectrum frequency bands, the more capacity and signal strength for its customers.
The government does auctions to increase the efficiency of industries and earn maximum revenue from them.
The Union government owns all publicly available assets within the country’s geographical limits, including airwaves. The need to provide more space for signals arises from time to time as the number of cellphones, wireline telephones, and internet users grow.
Through the Department of Transportation in the spectrum auction, the federal government auctions its assets from time to time to sell them to corporations ready to build the necessary infrastructure to carry these waves from one end to the other.
Why is spectrum auction used?
The most common reason spectrum auctions are used is to help promote competition between the wireless carriers and allow them to use their spectrum frequencies more effectively. This will help them in providing the best customer service possible. Spectrum auction enables the carriers to be technologically competitive with each other to provide better services for their customers. Variations in spectrum frequency bands could mean that a carrier has no choice but to drop out of the industry for various reasons.
This means it needs to be also regulated, which is why they are divided into bands. If left at any frequency, there would be complete chaos, and the interference would be amplified. Thus band division is helpful.
Spectrum auction 2022
The government is trying spectrum management through auctioning the spectrum. Radio frequencies, like land, mineral, oil, gas, and water, are the sole property of a state. Since these frequencies are limited, the government administers them for various purposes, including telecommunications, radio, television, and defence. More spectrum is required as the number of applications and new technologies such as 2G, 3G, and 4G grow. Within each frequency, the government divides it into rings (cities or states) and assigns different sector users to each.
In Rajya Sabha on the 25th of march, Devusinh Chauhan, minister of state for communications, said that the government is planning to conduct a 5G auction this year, mostly from April to May 2022. For this purpose, the 5G spectrums are allotted to 4 Telecom Service Providers for conducting 5G trials. The Department of Telecommunication does the allotment. According to the Dot, the 5G will be ten times faster than the 4G in India.
Prime minister Narendra Modi said that the Science and technology sectors are not isolated. They can combine to make India Self dependent and self-reliant. He added that the Fintech and digital economy are aiding in linking both sectors. He addressed the seventh webinar of the post-budget series by saying that advanced technology is playing a massive role in developing public services and infrastructure.
Conclusion
The government previously auctioned spectrum in 2016, offering 2,354.55 MHz at a reserve price of Rs 5.60 lakh crore. The government aims to provide spectrum for 4G in the 700, 800, 900, 1,800, 2,100, 2,300, and 2,500 MHz frequency bands in the spectrum auctions that start on the 1st of March 2022. These bands’ reserve prices have been set at Rs 3.92 lakh crore. The cost of airwaves may rise or fall depending on demand from various firms, but it cannot go below the reserve price.
