Pre-qualified bidders for spectrum auction announced

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has released a list of pre-qualified bidders for the second generation (2G) spectrum or airwave auction in 1,800 MHz and 900 MHz due Feb 3.

Among the eight telecom service providers who applied to bid for the auction, five - Bharti Airtel, Aircel, Idea Cellular, Reliance Jio Infocomm and Telewings Communications-- would bid for all 22 service areas.

Vodafone has opted out of seven circles, while Reliance Communications has opted out of eight circles and Tata Teleservices has opted out of one circle.

The total spectrum to be put on auction is 46 MHz in 900 MHz band and 403.2 MHz in 1,800 MHz band.

The government expects to mop up Rs.40,874.50 crore from this spectrum auction.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Tuesday released "Working Guidelines for Spectrum Trading", in which it stated that under spectrum trading, only outright transfer of spectrum is permitted, that is the ownership of the usage right is transferred to the buyer.

"Spectrum leasing is not permitted at this point of time," TRAI said.

It also said "spectrum trading will not alter the original validity period of spectrum assignment".

"A TSP (telecom service provider) will not be permitted to trade any spectrum in the spectrum band in which it has acquired any spectrum through trading (or auction) for a period of 2 years from the effective date of transfer of spectrum (or effective date of assignment), that is, TSP is required to hold spectrum for at least two years from the date it acquires the spectrum."