The Cabinet is likely to take a decision on the pricing of the upcoming spectrum auctions this week. The auction is scheduled to take place in February for air waves in the 800 MHz, 900 MHz,1800 MHz and 2100 MH zbands will be on offer.
“The Cabinet is expected to take a call on Monday on spectrum pricing and the Department of Telecom (DoT) is likely to issue the auction details through a Notice Inviting Application (NIA) on Tuesday or Wednesday,” a senior government official told BusinessLine .
The official said since the notice inviting application from potential bidders is expected to be issued within this week, the Cabinet approval of the reserve prices has to happen by Monday or Tuesday.
The Cabinet, however, may not be in a position to decide on pricing 2100 MHz because the telecom regulator gave its recommendations only last week. Cabinet can take a view only after the Telecom Commission, the apex decision making body of the Department of Telecom, gives it opinion on the TRAI pricing.
Pricing for other frequency bands have gone through the entire process therefore the Cabinet can take a decision on 800 MHz, 1800 MHz and 900 MHz. The Commission has proposed Rs 3,695 crore per MHz, pan India, for 900 MHz band.
For 1800 MHz the price, to be considered by the Cabinet, is ₹2,191 crore per MHz and for the 800 MHz band, the proposed reserve fee is at ₹3,646 crore. For the 2100 MHz band the TRAI has proposed a price of ₹3,350 crore which is yet to be ratified by the DoT. The industry has not raised any serious objections to these prices and hence the Cabinet is likely to go with it without any significant changes. Operators using the CDMA technology have expressed some concerns at the proposed pricing of the 800 MHz band but the DoT has argued that this spectrum band has good propagation characteristics and therefore it has to be priced above the other frequency bands. DoT has selected Kolkata-based e-auction services provider mjunction to conduct the spectrum auction.