The Department of Telecom may charge a premium from operators that win in the next round of auction if they are given contiguous spectrum.

The entire spectrum being put for sale in the next round of auction is not available in contiguous blocks of 5 MHz. This means that the spectrum given to a winning operator post the auction could be split into 2 or 3 chunks. So an operator could get 2.5 MHz chunk in the lower part of the 1800 MHz band and the balance in the upper part. Such an allocation would make it difficult for operators to offer data services.

The problem is that the spectrum being put on sale in the next round of auction has been made available after 122 licences issued to new 2G players in 2008 were cancelled. Though this has freed up more than 400 MHz of spectrum, it is dispersed.

While non-contiguous spectrum works for offering voice services, higher technologies need the airwaves to be bunched up together. But there are a few areas where the spectrum is continuous. An inter-ministerial committee, which met recently, to finalise the auction rules has taken a view that such contiguous blocks of airwaves could be sold at a premium.

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