Govt to discuss 2G price of unsold waves on December 13

13 Dec 2012 Evaluate

Given the quiet response to the recently completed 2G spectrum auctions, the government is expected to discuss on December 13, recommendations made by the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on pricing of spectrum that was unsold in the recently conducted auction on November 14, 2012.

The EGoM on telecom headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram is expected to have recommended a 30 percent reduction in reserve price for airwaves in the 1,800 Mhz band in four circles, namely Delhi, Mumbai, Karnataka and Rajasthan, that remained unsold in last auction, a move that could fetch Rs 6,200 crore to exchequer. However, at the old rates, the government would have earned a minimum of Rs 8,843.55 crore if the 5 Mhz each in these four circles were sold out.

Further, EGoM in its meet on December 7 also suggested auctioning spectrum in 900 MHz band in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata simultaneously with the sale of radio waves in 1800 Mhz in these four circles. Moreover, the EGoM also reportedly has decided to recommend to Cabinet that reserve price for premium 900 Mhz band, being used currently by Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone in Delhi and Mumbai service area, be twice the reserve price for 1800 Mhz band.

The last 2G mobile phone spectrum auction emerged as damp squib with government managing to garner bids worth just Rs 9,407 crore as against a minimum target of Rs 28,000 crore, as there were no takers in the November auction for 1800 megahertz (MHz) radio waves on offer in the key telecom zones, or circles, of Delhi and Mumbai - the nation’s biggest telecom markets and Karnataka and Rajasthan. The government had put on auction a substantial part of the spectrum that was freed from Supreme Court in February this year cancelling 122 mobile permits issued by the then Telecom minister A Raja to nine telecom players in 2008.

The failure of spectrum auction could be highly attributed to the high reserve price fixed by government. The government had fixed around 8 times high reserve price for GSM spectrum and 11 times high price for CDMA spectrum compared to the amount on which companies were allocated pan-India permits till 2008.

© 2026 The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. MoneyWorks4Me ® is a registered trademark of The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd.

×