Despite many difficulties, the larger telecom ecosystem feels rising demand will keep the 5G discussion going India’s 5G roll-out remains under a cloud with the covid-19 outbreak compounding the problems faced by the already stressed telecom sector.
Bharti Airtel Ltd and Vodafone Idea Ltd have said they will not participate in the 5G auctions at such high prices. Ratings agency Fitch said that telcos do not have the financial capacity to go for it. “A 5G spectrum auction looks increasingly improbable in 2020 in light of incumbent telcos’ limited financial flexibility, a high base price of $7 billion for pan-India 5G spectrum in 3.3GHz-3.6GHz bandwidth and a limited business case for 5G, when 4G penetration is only around 50%." However, the