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Telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said the government is likely to hold 5G spectrum auction in early June. Further, he said that the roll out of 5G services in the country will begin by August-September.

He mentioned that that the Department of Telecom is working as per expected timeline and the process is on to resolve industry concerns around spectrum pricing. Setting the stage for the rollout of 5G services, telecom regulator Trai has mooted a mega auction plan valued at over Rs 7.5 lakh crore at the base price across multiple bands for radio waves allocated over 30 years.

In case of 20 years, the total value of the proposed spectrum auction will stand at around Rs 5.07 lakh crore at the reserve price, according to the back-of-the-envelope calculation. While Trai has reduced spectrum price by about 39 per cent compared to last price, telecom operators have said that the recommended rates are higher than global benchmarks.