Year 2021 has been truly unique for the telecom sector, where the mock auction lasted longer than the actual spectrum auction. Now that the dust is settling on all the action, we at OnlyTech have been evaluating the overall spectrum portfolio of all 3 private telcos. Before the auction, Vodafone Idea prided itself for owning the largest Sub-GHz and overall spectrum holding Pan India but this auction has reshuffled the pecking order and Vi no longer holds the crown.
Sub GHz spectrum portfolio:
Spectrum held by telecom operators in frequency bands lower than 1 GHz is termed as sub GHz spectrum. This includes the holdings in 700 MHz, 850 MHz and 900 MHz bands. After the current auction ended, Jio now boasts the largest Sub GHz footprint of 395 MHz Pan India, followed by Airtel with 340.6 MHz and lastly Vi with 282.4 MHz. The circle-wise sub GHz portfolio of all 3 operators is given in the table below.
| Circle | Vi | Airtel | Jio |
|---|---|---|---|
| AP | 10 | 25.5 | 12.5 |
| Assam | 0 | 16 | 10 |
| Bihar | 0 | 22.4 | 20 |
| Delhi | 20 | 14.5 | 17.5 |
| Gujarat | 22 | 8.4 | 20 |
| Haryana | 24.4 | 10 | 20 |
| HP | 0 | 20 | 20 |
| J & K | 0 | 12.4 | 10 |
| Karnataka | 10 | 17.6 | 20 |
| Kerala | 24.8 | 9.2 | 20 |
| Kolkata | 14 | 14 | 20 |
| MP & CG | 14.8 | 10 | 20 |
| Maharashtra | 28 | 10 | 20 |
| Mumbai | 22 | 15 | 25 |
| North East | 0 | 20 | 10 |
| Odisha | 10 | 22.4 | 20 |
| Punjab | 11.2 | 20 | 20 |
| Rajasthan | 12.8 | 12 | 20 |
| Tamil Nadu | 10 | 10 | 20 |
| UP East | 11.2 | 22.4 | 20 |
| UP West | 22.4 | 10 | 10 |
| West Bengal | 14.8 | 18.8 | 20 |
| Total | 282.4 | 340.6 | 395 |
Overall Spectrum Portfolio:
The overall spectrum portfolio includes the spectrum holding of the operators across all frequency bands including 700 MHz, 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, and 2500 MHz bands. After the current auction ended, Airtel holds the largest spectrum portfolio with 2107.1 MHz Pan India, followed by Vi with 1768.4, and ironically Jio which won the largest quantum of spectrum in the auction still has the smallest overall spectrum holding among the three. The circle-wise sub GHz portfolio of all 3 operators is given in the table below.
| Circle | Vi | Airtel | Jio |
|---|---|---|---|
| AP | 43.2 | 108.3 | 72.5 |
| Assam | 80 | 106.9 | 70 |
| Bihar | 55.6 | 118.4 | 80 |
| Delhi | 71.2 | 78.5 | 77.5 |
| Gujarat | 113.6 | 88.4 | 80 |
| Haryana | 106 | 90 | 80 |
| HP | 42.4 | 100 | 80.8 |
| J & K | 54 | 102.4 | 70 |
| Karnataka | 50 | 107.6 | 80 |
| Kerala | 114.8 | 79.2 | 80 |
| Kolkata | 84 | 64 | 80 |
| MP & CG | 92 | 90 | 80 |
| Maharashtra | 122.8 | 90 | 80 |
| Mumbai | 91.2 | 77 | 85 |
| North East | 81.6 | 100 | 70 |
| Odisha | 74 | 101.2 | 80 |
| Punjab | 71.2 | 100 | 80 |
| Rajasthan | 82.8 | 102 | 80 |
| Tamil Nadu | 62.8 | 100 | 80 |
| UP East | 91.2 | 104.4 | 80 |
| UP West | 92.4 | 100 | 70 |
| West Bengal | 91.6 | 98.8 | 81.2 |
| Total | 1768.4 | 2107.1 | 1717 |
Please note: Holding in FDD bands (700/850/900/1800/2100 MHz) is paired and is thus multiplied by 2 to bring it at par with TDD bands (2300/2500 MHz) unpaired holdings. All figures mentioned in the tables exclude the spectrum holdings that are set to expire this year up to December 2021. The entire spectrum holding of Jio is liberalised while some amount of spectrum held by Airtel and Vi is still unliberalised and will expire in 2024. For the complete details of band-wise and circle-wise spectrum holdings of all operators please refer to our Pan India 2021 Spectrum Holding sheet.
Airtel is having single antenna on most of its sites emitting (2g, 3g & 4g across multiple bands 1 , 3 , 8 & 40)
Will Airtel need to add another antenna for band 5 roll out.
Jio is having minimum two antennas on all its existing monopole & three antennas on its own ground base towers.
Does this not increase tower rental & power consumption.
Haven’t , seen any Coverage strength difference between Airtel single & jio dual antennas.
Airtel 3g is down from a long time ago. 😋
Great work bhai .
Airtel is having max spectrum qty & traffic is less then 50% of jio. So the over all, the speeds will be better on Airtel as they have good capacity & it will offer premium experience as compared to jio.
Secondly is 395 mhz shown in sub ghz spectrum is all band 5 of jio.
Thanks Kunal. Yes sub GHz for Jio is only band 5, for Vi it is only band 8 and for Airtel it is bands 5 and 8 both.
I hope they will charge premium now atleast from postpaid customers and hike the prepaid tariffs by 100Rupees minimum and get ready with money for 5G auctions. I hope their coverage increases by the end of the year. Ideally both Vi and Airtel should remove 56days plans.