India's Reliance Jio Infocomm hopes to enter spectrum swapping agreements with other operators to swap its non-contiguous 800-MHz spectrum secured in the recent $17.5 billion auction into continuous airwaves.
Reliance Jio acquired 49 units of 800-MHz spectrum across 10 circles during the auction at a cost of 78.76 billion rupees ($1.25 billion), and plans to use the spectrum for its upcoming nationwide TD-LTE network rollout.
But the operator was only able to acquire contiguous spectrum in four circles, the Economic Timesreported, leaving it pursuing spectrum swap deals to compensate.
Reliance Jio still hasn't launched 4G services nearly five years after securing 2300-MHz spectrum for the rollout in 2010, with experts attributing the delay to technological limitations in the band.
Acquiring the 800-MHz spectrum is seen as an attempt to overcome these limitations, but will depend on entering spectrum swap deals with rivals.
The operator's ability to enter these deals will hinge on government approval of spectrum trading rules, but Reliance Jio asserts that the spectrum has already been liberalized and the auction terms allowed operators to swap spectrum.
The Indian government last week concluded an intensely competitive auction of spectrum in the 800-MHz, 900-MHz, 1800-MHz and 2100-MHz bands, raising a record 1.1 trillion rupees ($17.6 billion).