The Indian government intends to hold another 2G auction following a lacklustre response to this week’s spectrum sale.
As TelecomFinance reported earlier this week, the government raised less than a quarter of its sale target from the auction.
The…
The Indian government intends to hold another 2G auction following a lacklustre response to this week’s spectrum sale.
As TelecomFinance reported earlier this week, the government raised less than a quarter of its sale target from the auction.
The unsold spectrum will be put up for auction again before 31 March 2013, according to the telecommunications minister Kapil Sibal, cited in media reports today.
Four telecom zones, including Delhi and Mumbai, saw no demand at this week’s sale.
“The success of another auction depends on a host of factors,” an analyst at an Indian brokerage told TelecomFinance. “The critical factor is the price, but it also depends on which bands of spectrum are put up for sale and the quantity.”
The analyst went on to say that he thought the 1800MHz band would not be very lucrative compared to the 900MHz band.
Telenor, Idea Cellular, Videocon and Vodafone India were all awarded spectrum licences this week.
Telenor expects consolidation
India’s mobile phone market will consolidate and “rationalise itself to a great extent in the next period,” said Telenor’s CFO Richard Olav Aa at a conference this week, according to media reports.
Consolidation will help the Norwegian telco make a profit in India after years of losses, he added.
Telenor announced earlier in the week that it had secured spectrum licences in six telecom zones in India, totalling INR40.18bn (US$0.73bn). However, it was not awarded spectrum in Mumbai, Kolkata and West Bangal, so will cease operations in these circles.
Telenor gave up those licences as they became too expensive, Aa was reported to have said at the conference.
“While you do need scale in each circle you are in, we don’t see the need to be pan-Indian so as to achieve the cost position we need to compete with Bharti and Vodafone,” he said.
