The country's biggest ever air waves auction is completed, and the 5G spectrum assignment letter has been issued, so requesting telecom services firms to prepare for launch, said telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in a post on Koo on Thursday.
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With this spectrum allotment, India is in the final stage of rolling out high-speed 5G telecom services.
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Sunil Bharti Mittal, the founder and chairman of Bharti Enterprises, said that Bharti Airtel received the letter allocating its share of the spectrum just hours after paying the Department of Telecom in advance.
This is the first time ever that the Department of Telecom (DoT) has handed out a spectrum allocation letter on the day of making an upfront payment.
"Airtel paid Rs 8,312.4 crore towards spectrum dues and was provided with the allocation letter for the designated frequency bands within hours. E band allocation was given along with spectrum as promised. No Fuss, No Follow Up, No running around the corridors and No tall claims. This is the ease of doing business at work in its full glory," Mr Mittal said in a statement.
Service providers Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Adani Data Networks, and Vodafone Idea have paid the Department of Telecom a total of about Rs 17,876 crore for the spectrum they just acquired in an auction.
Bharti Airtel paid Rs 8,312.4 crore, equal to four annual instalments, whereas all telecom companies chose to pay in 20 annual instalments.
"In my over 30 years of first-hand experience with DoT, this is a first! Business as it should be. Leadership at work-Right at the top and the helm of telecom. What a Change! Change that can transform this nation – power its dreams to be a developed nation," Mr Mittal said.
By obtaining a pan-Indian footprint of the 3.5 GHz and 26 GHz bands and making selective purchases of radio waves in the low and mid-band spectrum, Airtel was able to acquire 19,867.8 MHz of spectrum.
The largest telecom spectrum auction in the nation's history attracted bids of a record Rs 1.5 lakh crore, with Mukesh Ambani's Jio securing almost half of the airwaves sold with a price of Rs 87,946.93 crore.
Reliance Jio has paid Rs 7,864.78 crore, Adani Data Networks Rs 18.94 crore, and Vodafone Idea Rs 1,679.98 crore.
Gautam Adani submitted bids totalling Rs. 211.86 crore for 400 MHz in a band not currently utilised for providing public telephony services.
Bharti Airtel, owned by telecom billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal, submitted a winning bid of Rs 43,039.63 crore, and Vodafone Idea Ltd purchased spectrum for Rs 18,786.25 crore.
India's "techade," according to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is underway as a result of the government's emphasis on technologies like 5G, semiconductor production, and optical fibre connections. He made this statement during his address to the country on Independence Day from the Red Fort's ramparts.
These technologies, PM Modi said, will bring about a revolution at the grassroots level.
"India's techade is here! With 5G, semiconductor manufacturing and OFCs in villages, we are bringing a revolution through Digital India to the grassroots level," he said at Red Fort.
What Is 5G, And How Is It Different From The Current 3G And 4G Services?
The fifth-generation (5G) mobile network is able to send massive amounts of data at extremely fast rates.
5G has an extremely low latency compared to 3G and 4G, which will improve user experiences across a variety of industries. Low latency refers to the ability to efficiently process a large number of data packets with little delay.
The introduction of 5G is also anticipated to advance remote data monitoring in industries like mining, manufacturing, telemedicine, and storage, among others.
5G services are expected to be about 10 times faster than 4G.
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