On behalf of the GSMA, Plum estimated the potential impact of additional spectrum awards to mobile operators in India and Pakistan, focussing on the sub-700MHz spectrum bands which could be released after digital switchover.

First, Plum analysed the current television markets in each country, to identify how much spectrum could be released once the analogue signal was turned off, with an assumption that the television service should be no worse than the current level.  Second, Plum applied this increase in spectrum to model the increase in capacity across the mobile networks, and extended this using a productivity growth analysis to estimate the overall economic growth that could be facilitated by the additional spectrum.

The reports conclude that this could grow India and Pakistan’s economies by 1.4% and 1.5% respectively by 2030.