Given the 4G ecosystem improvement (in terms of S-RAN equipment and 4G smartphone shipments), we believe that a lot of operators have changed their 4G strategies and would likely be interested in a larger amount of 4G spectrum.
We expect Vodafone to bid for 2300 MHz spectrum in upcoming auction as the pricing is relatively cheaper vs other bands and ecosystem has improved a lot and the license fee is 1% vs. 6-8% for other bands.
We expect Idea to complete their 3G/4G spectrum footprint by acquiring spectrum in 5 circles where do not have data spectrum. These are Mumbai, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Assam and Bihar.
With Telenor mentioning its intention to launch narrowband LTE, we expect the company bidding for some 4G spectrum across 2300/2500 and 1800 MHz bands.
We do not see any operator bidding for 700 MHz spectrum in the current auction as the pricing is high and there is more supply than demand in each circles (7 slots of 5MHz available vs. only four serious data operators).
