The Department of Telecom (DoT) has prepared a final draft note on spectrum auction and has sent it to the Finance and Defence Ministries for approval, before placing it before the Union Cabinet.

“The Cabinet is expected to approve the auction plan in the next few days,” a DoT official told BusinessLine . The auction is scheduled to take place from February 23 next year.

According to the official, the process is expected to be completed by early January, as the Government wants the auctions to take place in February, as announced earlier.

Since there are several issues related to spectrum in the 2,100 MHz band, the DoT will also take the views of the Defence Ministry, before sending the note for Cabinet approval, the official said.

The Government expects to auction some amount of 3G spectrum along with radio waves in three sets of bands – 800 Mhz, 900 Mhz and 1,800 Mhz – being used by Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications for 2G services across the country.

The DoT and the Defence Ministry have been jointly working on a plan to get some spectrum freed from the latter for commercial mobile telephony services. The waiver is part of a memorandum of understanding signed in 2009 between the Telecom and Defence Ministries.

Both the Ministries have agreed ‘in principle’ to release 5MHz in the 2,100 MHz band across 17 out of 22 telecom services circles.

“This is a right step to make adequate spectrum available for auction,” said Rajan S Mathews, Director-General, Cellular Operators Association of India.

The Government expects to raise a minimum of ₹9,355 crore from the upcoming auction and another ₹5,000 crore from the radio waves expected to be freed by the Defence Ministry.

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