Telecom Comm pegs 23% higher base price for 900 Mhz spectrum

10 Dec 2014 Evaluate

In yet another trouble for Telecom industry, Inter-ministerial panel Telecom Commission has recommended a base price of Rs 3,693 crore per megahertz for the premium 900 MHz frequency band, which is 23% higher than the price recommended by telecom regulator, TRAI for the spectrum auction in February.

Further, the commission has finalized a base price of Rs 3,646 crore per Mhz for CDMA band, nearly 17% higher than the price suggested by TRAI. Telecom regulator had recommended that base price for 900 Mhz band price be kept at Rs 3,004 crore per Mhz, for 1800 Mhz at Rs 2,138 crore and for CDMA spectrum at Rs 3,104 crore.

With this development, the recommended base prices now would be placed before Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad for final approval and after that Cabinet might be approached for certain issues.

Auction of spectrum in 900 Mhz band would be held for 18 telecom circles and buying one Mhz in each of these circles would cost Rs 3,693-crore to the bidder. Similarly, spectrum in 1800 Mhz band is being auctioned in 20 circles while 800 Mhz band (CDMA) spectrum is on pan-India basis.

In the 900 Mhz band about 184 Mhz of spectrum is likely to be auctioned, while in 1800 Mhz, the government has proposed to auction 104 Mhz of spectrum which would include spectrum held by licences that are expiring in 2015-16 and unsold airwaves in February auction.

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