In a move which would help the government garnering over Rs 1 lakh crore along with sale of other mobile frequencies, the Cabinet, accepting inter-ministerial panel Telecom Commission's (TC) suggestion, approved a base price of Rs 3,705 crore per megahertz (MHz) for 2100 MHz band, used for 3G mobile services.
Meanwhile, the reserve prices for other bands, 800 MHz, 900 Mhz and 1,800 MHz have already been finalized by the Cabinet for the auction, which is scheduled to start from March 4 along with the 3G spectrum band. The combined proceeds from auction of all the four bands are estimated to fetch the government over Rs 100,000 crore.
Notably, the base price suggested by the Commission is approximately 11% higher than price paid by telecom firms in the 2010 auction. It is also 36% higher than sectoral regulator TRAI's recommendation of Rs 2,720 crore per Mhz.
This development comes right after the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) deferred Spectrum auction in 800, 900, 2100 and 1800 MHz band, originally slated to start from February 25 by a week to March 4.