DoT puts on hold spectrum panel report till 3G auction

The government is understood to have put on hold the implementation of report of the spectrum committee which suggested auction of radio waves beyond 6.2 MHz for existing 2G services.

Since the committee, headed by Additional Secretary Subodh Kumar, suggested that the pricing of 2G spectrum should be related to the auction price of 3G, it may, therefore, be appropriate to consider the recommendations of this committee after 3G auction, highly placed sources said.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) is likely to take the issue of 3G spectrum auction to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) this month only and is expecting to hold auction some time in August.

Going by this, the big telecom operators having spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz can breathe easy as any decision on pricing the extra frequency would be taken only after August.

Earlier, the DoT had obtained the price of spectrum for those having it beyond 6.2 MHz at Rs 267 crore per MHz plus indexing it by PLR from the date of assignment of spectrum.

Due to strong opposition from certain quarters this could not be implemented.

Currently, DoT has been allocating extra spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz on the basis of subscriber norms and charges fixed spectrum fee based on quantity held by a respective operator.