Telecom regulator Authority of India (TRAI) Wednesday recommended base price of Rs.2,720 crore per Mhz for pan India 3G spectrum, about 19 per cent lower than the previous auction—determined price.
In 2010, the 3G spectrum was sold at an auction—determined price of about Rs.3,350 crore per megahertz.
Besides, TRAI had recommended that DoT should put additional 15 Mhz for auction, which had to be obtained in exchange of spectrum that was with the Defence services.
The Department of Telecom, however, was optimistic of getting 5 Mhz of 3G spectrum (2100 Mhz band) from the Defence Ministry.
“The Authority recommends that the reserve price for 2100 MHz spectrum in each LSA (licence service area) should be...Rs.2,720 crore,” TRAI said.
“Furthermore, the 15 MHz of spectrum in the 2100 MHz spectrum being vacated by Ministry of Defence, in lieu of spectrum in the 1900 MHz spectrum, should be auctioned in view of the in-principle agreement reached with MoD, even if it is not available immediately,” it added.
This can be done as “actual assignments do not have to be made immediately”, it said.
The regulator had recommended that the DoT should take all measures to ensure that the 2100 MHz spectrum which was earlier assigned to S-Tel in three service areas — Bihar, Orissa and Himachal Pradesh — was also put to auction.
S-Tel closed its business in India after the Supreme Court cancelled 122 licences in February 2012 in the 2G spectrum allocation case.
Incidentally, the 2010 reserve price for 3G spectrum had formed the basis of CAG estimating notional loss figure of Rs.1.76 lakh crore in 2G spectrum allocation case of 2008.
