The Department of Telecom (DoT) is understood to have turned down the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai)’s proposal of fixing Rs 14,488 crore per unit as the reserve price for 700 MHz spectrum, saying the price should be determined during the 2G telecom spectrum auction in 2014.
The committee has also favoured increasing the Trai recommended reserve price of Rs 3,622 crore per MHz across the country to Rs 4,245 crore per MHz in the 1,800 MHz band.
A DoT committee studying Trai’s proposals on spectrum auction said, “The modalities, including the reserve price (for 700 MHz) should be decided at the future date told by Trai (2014).”
According to the committee, by that time, “DoT would have recent data on auction-determined prices in other bands, as well as international trends.” Trai, in its recommendations on the auction of spectrum, had, last month, suggested quadrupling the reserve price for one unit of 4G airwaves in the 700 MHz band to Rs 14,488 crore.
The authority had suggested the auction of spectrum in the 700 MHz band be carried out at a later date, preferably in 2014, when the ecosystem for long-term evolution in the 700 MHz band is reasonably developed.
Trai had earlier proposed a reserve price of Rs 3,622 crore for each megahertz of spectrum in the 1,800 MHz band. It had also proposed to double the base price of airwaves in the 800 MHz and 900 MHz bands at Rs 7,244 crore per unit for pan-India bandwidth. However, later, Trai had recommended the base price for the 800 MHz band be kept at 1.3 times, not double, the base price for the 1,800 MHz band.
