3rd round of spectrum auction may start from Jan 7

Govt expects to garner at least Rs 11,300 crore from the auction of radiowaves in three bands

The third round of spectrum auction may start from January 7 as per the tentative timeline worked out by an inter-ministerial committee (IMC), which was set up by the Department of Telecom.

IMC had decided to complete the considerations over telecom regulator Trai's recommendations by October 7 and make submissions to the Empowered Group of Ministers on spectrum, headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, by November 7.

The Telecom Commission completed the first round of considerations of the recommendations given by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on October 3.

The next meeting of TC is scheduled for October 29 where it is expected to take final decision. The views of TC will be send to EGoM which will finally decide on modalities for auction. The EGoM may approach cabinet for final decision on reserve price for spectrum as it did for previous auctions.

As per its meeting on September 20, IMC expects "receipt of Cabinet approval by November 23 and start of auction by January 7", according to official sources.

The IMC has suggested that the process for compiling final document for auction, the notice inviting application, should start after November 7.

The government expects to garner at least Rs 11,300 crore from the auction of radiowaves in three bands -- 1800 Mhz (freed from the cancellation of 122 licences by the Supreme Court in February last year in the 2G spectrum allocation case), 800 Mhz (used for CDMA services) and 900 Mhz (premium 2G spectrum that will be freed on expiry of current licences).

The spectrum proposed for auction in 900 Mhz includes that of Bharti Airtel and Vodafone in Delhi and Kolkata and of Loop Mobile and Vodafone in Mumbai.

The third round of spectrum auctions are to be conducted following a Supreme Court order. The first two round were held in November last year and March this year which saw muted response from industry.

It has asked DoT to seek clarifications and additional information from Trai including the formula it has used for drastically reducing spectrum base price by up to 62% for 900 Mhz and 37% for 1800 Mhz band.

As per rule, Trai has to send clarifications within 15 days of receiving reference from DoT.