Trai to complete consultation on 3G-2G price-linking by July 15

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will complete the consultation process for linking 3G spectrum price with 2G spectrum by July 15 and expects the government to wait for its proposals before taking a decision.

“I have asked the operators to give their viewpoints on 3G spectrum price linking to 2G by June 15 and we plan to finalise the process by July 15,” Trai Chairman JS Sarma said.

He said there was not any change in the regulator’s position on the issue of the payment by mobile operators for holding over 6.2 MHz of spectrum, as recommendations were made in the context of spectrum scarcity.

Trai’s recommendations have been criticised by the existing players, like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular, among others, who will have to pay about Rs 17,000 crore for holding spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz, if the recommendations are accepted by Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

The price of 2G spectrum has been linked with 3G auction price. This has sparked a controversy, as experts and the industry feel that the prices of 2G could not be linked with 3G because these are two different technologies and 3G is three times more efficient than 2G.

Sarma said he had already written to DoT that separate consultation process on 2G-3G price-linking would be carried out and it was expected the government would analyse the proposals before finalising anything.

Efforts should be made by DoT to refarm 800 MHz and 900 MHz of spectrum, which could be made available to all the operators, he said.

Sarma also met a delegation from Ficci, COAI, Auspi and Ispai to listen to their views on the recommendations.

Talking about the meeting with Sarma, COAI Director General R S Mathews said: “TRAI is going to study the issue of pricing of 2G spectrum and give its final views. But, on the refarming of 900 MHz spectrum, the regulator has not changed its position. It will look into the refarming issue only when DoT asks it to.”