RPH, HPS the New Paradigm in Spectrum Auction

Abstract

India is divided into 22 Service Areas consisting of 19 Telecom Circle Service Areas and 3 Metro Service Areas for providing Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (CMTS). The country’s mobile Penetration 84% and Internet penetration 60%. The 22 LSAs were conceived in 1995 were based on revenue earning potential in 1995 but after the 5G Auctions 2022 we have to move a finer granulation of the market. This is because 22 LSAs are heterogeneous in its willingness to pay across the range of digital services. Indian Telecom is a 4-player market, R.Jio, Airtel, VI, and BSNL. Post 5G Auctions there has to be closer alignment with the market characteristics. Customizations according to LSA may not be practical. IoT, machine-to-machine communication Gaming, and Augmented reality will see a huge demand in the period leading from 2023. 5G implies short range data intensive communication. It came without surprise when the mm waves saw the maximum subscription in this auction. mm waves account for high data capacity with less penetration. Hence we will see a migration from to micro and Pico cells. LSA will have to model on micro cells for high intensity usage. Operators will need to focus on minimum viable area-Smallest area compatible with profitable operations. This will need redesign of the current LSAs and split circle to reduce barrier promote competition and innovation.

Keywords: LSA (Local Service Area), 5G, Auction, ARPU (Average Revenue per User), HPS (Hertz per Subscriber), RPH (Revenue per Hertz), RPS (Revenue per Subscriber).

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