4G spectrum base price should be 8 times of 3G's: Infotel

Infotel Broadband, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, has suggested that the reserve price of the 4G spectrum should be fixed 7 to 8 times higher than that of 3G radio waves.

The reserve price for pan-India 3G spectrum had been fixed at Rs 3,500 crore.

In response to Trai's consultation paper on 'Auction of Spectrum', the company said that the economic value of the spectrum in 700 Mhz band is higher than 2100 Mhz allocated for 3G services and 900/800 Mhz band allocated for 2G service.

"Based on the above comparable factors given by the Authority, the reserve price for 700 Mhz spectrum may be kept around 7-8x of 3G auction price," Infotel Broadband IBSL said.

A senior company official clarified that the '3G auction price' refers to base price that government has fixed for auction of 3G spectrum in 2010.

The government had fixed cumulative reserve price of Rs 3,500 crore pan-India 3G spectrum while the reserve price of each telecom circle was fixed separately.

Infotel said that the government should follow similar practice for 700 Mhz band auction.

The company had won a 20 Mhz slot pan-India BWA spectrum for Rs 12,847.71 crore in 2300 Mhz spectrum band and the company is conducting technology trials for rolling out services.

Infotel referred to Trai's presentation in which it said that LTE network (4G technology) at 700 Mhz would be 70 per cent cheaper to deploy than an LTE network at 2100 Mhz.

The company also asked for separate consultation process for auction of 4G spectrum band.

Bharti Airtel said that the reserve price for 700 Mhz /800 Mhz bands shoulb be at Rs 930 crore per Mhz for pan-India.

Vodafone suggested that the price should be set at the reserve price applied in the 3G and BWA auction case.

Reliance Communication said that the value of spectrum in 700 Mhz band should be at least three times the auction discovered price of BWA in 2.3 Ghz band.

The government had garnered over Rs 38,543 crore from auction of this spectrum.