India’s track record on releasing spectrum in a timely and affordable manner is very poor, and operators have suffered, through the 3G and 4G eras, from high reserve prices, small bandwidths, complex roaming and sharing restrictions, and long-winded regulatory processes. There are signs that the government wants to get it right for 5G and push the country into the front rank of deployersm and the Department of Telecom (DoT) has recommended freeing up a huge 6,000 MHz of spectrum for 5G. This would be spread across 11 bands, four of which – 700 MHz, 3.5 GHz, 24 GHz and 28 GHz – could be made available quickly because they are not occupied. Although operators have expressed concern that they might…