The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended an unexpected base price of Rs 2720 crores per MHz for the forthcoming 3G spectrum auction. This means mobile operators will have to cough up an amount that’s almost 22 percent lower than what was earned by the government in the previous sale.
Accordingly, the reserve price has been fixed as aforementioned for air waves in the 2100MHz band for each service area. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is hoping that the Defense Ministry will release 15MHz of spectrum in the aforesaid band in exchange for the 1900MHz being offered to it.
Even if the Defense Ministry won’t vacate the 3G spectrum immediately, the block can still be auctioned off since it is not necessary to assign it to the winning bidders at once. Let’s hope delays in allotting the air waves to network operators don’t become an issue once again just like it happened in this year.
Related post: DoT marches ahead with 3G spectrum auction set for Feb 2015
The TRAI also recommends putting the 2100MHz spectrum given to S-TEL for Himachal Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa, up for sale. After all, it’s lying idle since the Supreme Court revoked 122 licenses belonging to the company in 2012. The regulator wishes to have caps placed on the number of blocks a bidder can go after.
In case a service circle has 3 to 4 blocks available, it has been suggested that not more than 2 of these should be offered to a single network operator. Additionally, 2 blocks of air waves must ideally be assigned to contiguous carriers only. Speaking of the 2100MHz band, there was news about interference.
The TRAI has asked for this problem which was reported in certain areas to be investigated and resolved before the auction that’s to take place in February 2015.