Pan India Telecom Spectrum holding chart 2021

Spectrum is for telecommunication what fuel is for aviation. Spectrum is a range of electromagnetic frequencies or airwaves which are used by the telecom companies for establishing a connection between a cell tower and a mobile phone. The bandwidth of this spectrum is directly proportional to the speed of a wireless data network (since more data can be transmitted simultaneously through a broader data pipeline) whereas the frequency is inversely proportional to the coverage (since lower frequencies penetrate better through physical barriers and thus have wider coverage).

The spectrum holding data sheet embedded in this article represents the current spectrum holdings of all active telecom operators across all frequency bands across all 22 telecom circles along with their liberalisation status and expiry dates (Spectrum is allotted for a period of 20 years). All figures represented are in MHz. The value mentioned in the bracket beside the frequency at the base of each sheet is the band number where ‘B’ stands for 4G LTE band whereas ‘n’ stands for the corresponding 5G NR band.

Spectrum was administratively allocated to operators in each of the 22 licensed service areas or circles pre 2010, this spectrum is called non-liberalised and can only be used for 2G services whereas all airwaves allotted post-2010 has been through a Spectrum Auction where operators have paid market discovered price and this spectrum is called liberalised and can be used for any technology platform 2G/3G/4G/5G.

Spectrum may be paired or unpaired, bands 1/3/5/8/28 are all paired where one set of frequencies is used for uplink whereas another distinct set of frequencies is used for downlink known as Frequency-division duplexing (FDD), whereas bands 40/41/42 are unpaired where both uplink and downlink happens in the same set of frequencies separated by the time of uplink and downlink known as Time-division duplexing (TDD).

List of Indian FDD Bands:

4G LTE band	5G NR band	Uplink frequency range (MHz)	Downlink frequency range (MHz)	Bandwidth for telecom (MHz)	Block size (MHz)
B1	n1	1939-1979	2129-2169	40×2	5×2
B3	n3	1710-1765	1805-1860	54.8×2	0.2×2
B5	n5	824-844	869-889	17.5×2	1.25×2
B8	n8	890-915	935-960	23.2×2	0.2×2
B28	n28	718-748	773-803	30×2	5×2

List of Indian TDD Bands:

4G LTE band	5G NR band	Frequency range (MHz)	Bandwidth for telecom (MHz)	Block size (MHz)
B40	n40	2300-2380	80	10
B41	n41	2535-2555 2635-2655	40	10
B42	n78	3425-3600	175	?

There is a spectrum cap that dictates how much spectrum a particular operator can hold in a circle in a particular band. An operator can own the right to use spectrum only in a quantum less than or equal to 50% of the combined available spectrum in all sub GHz bands (Band28+Band5+Band8) in a given licensed service area (circle) and less than or equal to 35% of the total available spectrum across all bands put together in a given licensed service area

Sub GHz spectrum holdings of private operators (in MHz) and Caps:

Circle	Vi	Airtel	Jio	Cap
AP	10	18	20	70.7
Assam	0	16	10	65.7
Bihar	0	22.4	20	70.7
Delhi	20	12	20	70.7
Gujarat	22	8.4	20	67.7
Haryana	24.4	10	20	66.1
HP	0	20	20	70.7
J & K	0	12.4	10	61.1
Karnataka	10	17.6	20	70.7
Kerala	24.8	9.2	20	70.7
Kolkata	14	14	20	70.7
MP & CG	14.8	10	20	70.7
Maharashtra	28	10	20	70.7
Mumbai	22	10	30	70.7
North East	0	20	10	65.7
Odisha	10	22.4	20	70.7
Punjab	11.2	20	20	69.3
Rajasthan	12.8	12	20	66.1
Tamil Nadu	10	10	20	70.7
UP East	11.2	22.4	20	70.7
UP West	22.4	10	10	66.1
West Bengal	14.8	18.8	20	70.7
Total	282.4	325.6	410

Overall spectrum holdings of private operators (in MHz) and Caps:

Circle	Vi	Airtel	Jio	Cap
AP	43.2	100.8	80	157.85
Assam	80	106.9	70	154.35
Bihar	55.6	118.4	80	157.85
Delhi	71.2	76	80	157.85
Gujarat	113.6	88.4	80	155.75
Haryana	106	90	80	154.63
HP	42.4	100	80.8	157.85
J & K	54	102.4	70	151.13
Karnataka	50	107.6	80	157.85
Kerala	114.8	79.2	80	157.85
Kolkata	84	64	80	157.85
MP & CG	92	90	80	157.85
Maharashtra	122.8	90	80	157.85
Mumbai	91.2	72	90	157.85
North East	81.6	100	70	154.35
Odisha	74	101.2	80	157.85
Punjab	71.2	100	80	156.87
Rajasthan	82.8	102	80	154.63
Tamil Nadu	62.8	100	80	157.85
UP East	91.2	104.4	80	157.85
UP West	92.4	100	70	154.63
West Bengal	91.6	98.8	81.2	157.85
Total	1768.4	2092.1	1732

Apart from auctions, operators can buy or sell spectrum usage rights from each other which is called spectrum trading. Operators may also sign a spectrum sharing agreement to pool their spectrum holdings to achieve more bandwidth, Jio currently has an active spectrum sharing agreement with Rcom in Assam and North East circles. Only intra-band spectrum sharing is permitted where both operators need to hold spectrum in the same band in a given circle, inter-band spectrum leasing is not allowed.

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Note: We update this chart in realtime to ensure it is always up to date with the latest changes in spectrum holding. Certain human errors might have crept in during manual compilation of the data, any mistakes/ rectification can be brought to the notice of the Team through the comments section below.