2300MHz band is used as unpaired spectrum. However, we believe carrier aggregation (CA) will largely eliminate the differences between paired and unpaired spectrum. In the pre-CA days, telcos configured 1x15MHz of1x20MHz unpaired spectrum as downlink and the rest as uplink frequencies. However, in CA, it is possible for telcos to assign the entire unpaired spectrum of 1x20MHz as downlink while configuring some other band as uplink.
Similarly, both legs of a paired spectrum such as 1800 could be used as downlink and another band could be used as uplink. Hence, in our view, only the total quantum of spectrum held by a telco (irrespective of paired and unpaired) matters.
It can be seen that 2500 and 2300 are the cheapest bands; 1800 band is ~80% more expensive than 2300Mhz band and 2100 is priced ~30% higher than 1800. Although 2300 and 2500 are priced similarly, the ecosystem in 2500 is less developed. Telcos can opt for more Tower sharing deals easily as every Towerco is open to host as many tenants as possible, thus making the economics of buying 2300 Mhz spectrum more viable.
Hence, we expect 2300 to witness maximum demand followed by 1800 and 2100MHz, in that order (except a few circles where 1800 and 2100 are priced similarly). Among low frequency bands, 850MHz is the cheapest and telcos may acquire this in circles where its price is <2x that of 1800 prices.
