The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Friday issued a pre-consultation paper for auctioning 2G spectrum across the country.
This comes a day after the Supreme Court ordered cancellation of 122 licences and asked the regulator to issue recommendations for selling the freed up spectrum. The court has set a four-month deadline for finalising the policy.
The TRAI has asked stakeholders to send in their comments by February 15. It added that there will be no extension given to the deadline set by the apex court.
About 25 Mhz of 2G spectrum in each circle will get freed up after the licences are cancelled. In addition the Department of Telecom has about 10 Mhz spectrum already available. The telecom regulator will give its recommendations on issues like eligibility of bidders, quantum of spectrum to be sold, base price and the method of auction.
The industry wants the Government to sell the entire spectrum it has in one go to avoid high bid prices. “From a situation where there was spectrum crunch now there is spectrum surplus. This augurs well for a sector which has been starving for 2G spectrum,” said an operator.
The price determined through this auction will also be used to fix the one-time entry fee for incumbent players.
Government sources said that the DoT may adopt the same bidding formula used for selling 3G spectrum wherein operators had the chance of improving their offer in each round till the number of slots is equal to the number of players left in the fray.