India 5G Auction Analysis — Communications SPs' Performance and Rollout Plans

India 5G Auction Analysis — Communications SPs' Performance and Rollout Plans

This IDC Market Note discusses the Department of Telecommunications (DoT)'s 5G auction, which concluded on August 1, 2022. The DoT ended up selling 71% (51.236GHz) out of the total available spectrum (72GHz) and generated a record revenue of INR1,50,713 crores (approximately US$19 billion). Reliance Jio, the largest bidder, acquired 24.74GHz worth of spectrum, followed by Airtel with 19.867GHz and Vodafone Idea with only 6.228GHz. The government is likely to receive INR13,500 crore (US$1.7 billion) as a first installment from communications SPs and complete spectrum allocation formalities on August 10. Both Airtel and Jio have announced their intentions to commence their rollout of 5G services in August 2022. "The DoT had a pretty successful 5G spectrum auction, selling enough spectrum for the pan-India rollout of 5G services by Airtel and Jio," says Nishant Bansal, senior research manager, IDC Asia/Pacific. "Initially, only metro and select urban cities are expected to get 5G services by the end of 2022. The rollout of 5G services may trigger tariff hikes by communications SPs as telcos look to achieve an average revenue per user of INR200 (US$2.5) in the short term."

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