DoT may knock Trai door again on 800 MHz pricing

Trai, in February this year, had recommended reserve price for 800MHz spectrum at Rs 2,685 cr for one MHz of pan-Indian airwaves

The Departmentof Telecommunications (DoT) may knock the door of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) once again regarding the pricing of 800MHz spectrum, if the Telecom Commission, which is scheduled to meet this week, decides to make a back reference on the issue.

The Telecom Commission, in its meeting, will examine therecommendations by an internal DoT Committee that has suggested for a backreference on the pricing of 800MHz spectrum band.

Trai, in February this year, had recommended the reserve price for 800MHz spectrum at Rs 2,685 crore for one MHz of pan-Indian airwaves.

The band is currently used for CDMA services in the country. The regulator has kept the price 48% higher than the base price for the previous auction of the band conducted inMarch 2013. But it has kept the base price at 80% of the average valuation.

According to the suggestions of the DoT Committee, a back referenceto Trai should be made as the regulator did not recommend anything on thespectrum usage charges for the 800MHz band, and the regulator also did not takenote of what should be the price for liberalising the spectrum while making itcontiguous.

The Telecom Commission is also likely to discuss possible regulationsfor spectrum trading and other auction related matters.DoT committee,which is handling CDMA spectrum issue, has also learnt to have said that it maynot be possible to meet Trai's key condition of carving out a 'contiguousspectrum' in the CDMA band before auctioning the radio waves and is likely toseek a review of the recommendation.

In September, thesector regulator had suggested that no auction be held for the 800 MHz band,which is used by CDMA operators and has potential for 4G services, for want oftakers.