Telecom panel to meet on Oct 3 over spectrum auction

Report of DoT committee will be reviewed by TC and then its views will be forwarded to EGoM

The Telecom Commission is scheduled to meet on October 3 to discuss the modalities of the next round of spectrum auction, which is expected to be held in January next year. At present, a nine-member committee of the department of telecomm-unications is studying the recommendation of Trai on spectrum pricing.

The report of the DoT committee would be reviewed by the TC and then its views would be forwarded to the Empowered Group of Ministers headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

In its recommendations, TRAI had recommended a reduction in the base price of 1,800 Mhz by 37 per cent and up to 60 per cent in 900 Mhz in  Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata circles,  coming up for auction next year.

However, it has said that CDMA operators have enough spectrum in the 800 Mhz band and the extended GSM band should be also offered for auction with 900 Mhz.