India’s operators are caught up in price wars and consolidation, partly sparked by the entry of Reliance Jio, and are amassing high levels of debt. This dismal landscape has led them to beg the regulator, TRAI, to give the some breathing space to extend 4G and monetize their LTE investments, before they have to splash out for 5G spectrum. However, the government is keen to place India in the 5G premier league, and says it may hold an auction as early as August 2019. Telecoms Secretary Aruna Sundararajan revealed last week that the government is working to release a broad range of spectrum bands for 5G, and has set up a Department of Telecom (DoT) taskforce for this purpose. It…