Telecom stocks ring off amidst caution ahead of EGOM meet

19 Jul 2012 Evaluate

Telecom stocks were trading cautious ahead of the deferred Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) meet on contentious issue of a reserve price for the re-auction of 2G spectrum on Friday. Crucial aspects like pricing of spectrum, one-time fee, terms of payment and the timeline for selecting the auctioneer, which were supposed to be taken on board for discussion on Tuesday, by the EGoM under the chairmanship of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, were deferred to Friday.

Tata Communications is currently trading at Rs 247.00, down by 4.55 points or 1.81% from its previous closing of Rs 251.55 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs 253.50 and has touched a high and low of Rs 253.50 and Rs 246.25 respectively. So far 41076 shares were traded on the counter.

Reliance Communications is currently trading at Rs 63.65, down by 1.40 points or 2.15% from its previous closing of Rs 65.05 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs 65.65 and has touched a high and low of Rs 65.70 and Rs 63.50 respectively. So far 1444954 shares were traded on the counter.

Idea Cellular is currently trading at Rs 80.40, down by 3.40 points or 4.06% from its previous closing of Rs 83.80 on the BSE. The scrip opened at Rs 84.00 and has touched a high and low of Rs 84.30 and Rs 80.00 respectively. So far 182409 shares were traded on the counter.

However, the ministerial panel, staying mum on rest of the issues, did manage to pencil down stricter roll-out obligations for successful bidders. Besides, the ministerial panel also mandated Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to sketch a fresh matrix on the impact of the reserve price chosen on government revenue and operators’ rates.

As per the new roll-out obligation, successful bidders will have to cover 10% of DHQs (district headquarters) by the third year, 20% of DHQs in the fourth year and 30% of DHQs by the fifth year. However, earlier the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had recommended the operators that win spectrum would have to cover 50% of villages, in three years, and 100% coverage of the country in four years.

With the industry crying foul, the Trai has proposed a near 10-fold rise in the auction’s starting price compared to what carriers paid in 2008. The regulator recommended 2G spectrum reserve price at Rs 3,622 crore per unit of spectrum in the 1800 MHz band, which translates to an amount of over Rs 18,000 crore for pan-India license, i.e. 13x of current base price of 2G and equivalent to 3G spectrum cost, where radio airwaves were vacated following the Supreme Court’s verdict on February 2 cancelling all the 122 spectrum licenses allotted in 2008 during the tenure of the former telecom minister A Raja.

 

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