Telecom Commission to meet on 7 November to discuss upcoming spectrum auction

The Telecom Commission has decided to meet on 7 November in order to discuss about the next round of spectrum auction scheduled to be held next year. Along with this the commission will also focus on the broadband project and TRAI’s recommendation on indoor wireless telephony. As reported by PTI, the TC is proposed to meet on November 7 to mainly discuss spectrum auction related issues, NOFN and TRAI’s recommendation on cordless communications system.

TRAI has submitted its recommendations to the government regarding spectrum auction for 900 Mhz and the 1,800 Mhz bands used by operators for providing mobile services.  Government has proposed to auction 184 Mhz of spectrum in 900 Mhz band. Moreover, in the 1800 Mhz band the government has proposed to auction 104 Mhz of spectrum which also incorporates the spectrum held by licences that are set to expire in 2015-16 and unsold airwaves in the upcoming auction. The regulator has suggested the price of Rs 3,004 crore per megahertz for premium 900 Mhz band, in which mobile signal covered about twice more area than 1800 Mhz.

The government is expecting a minimum of Rs 9,355 crore of collection from the auction of three bands. The three bands up for auction includes – 800MHz,currently being used for CDMA services, while the other two sets of band, 900MHz and 1800MHz, are being used for GSM-based mobile services by leading companies like Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Uninor. The auction will also witness the bidding for 900MHz band for the telecom operators, whose licenses are set to expire by next year.