Business: Mar 8, 2012

New Delhi Inching closer to an auction of spectrum, the sector regulator Trai issued a consultation paper in an auction of spectrum to ask for opinions from various stakeholders and then give his recommendation to the Department of Telecom. "Based on the comments received by the
stakeholders in the preconsultation paper and taking into account the international practices, the draft consultation paper on 'auction of spectrum' is prepared, "Trai said in a statement issued late Wednesday.

The key issues raised in this paper is the number of spectrum to be auctioned, liberalization and reframing of spectrum in the 800/900 MHz bands, structure of the auction, spectrum block size, eligibility criteria to participate in the auction, reserve price, roll out obligations, spectrum usage charges and trade.

The consultation paper shows a 60 MHz and 413.6 MHz of spectrum will be free at 800 MHz and 1800 MHz spectrum bands respectively of the cancellation of 122 2G licenses Supreme Court.

However, the majority of the telecommunications service area has a quantum of spectrum chunk even for a single new participants who have been determined by government for allocation under the new National Telecom Policy.

The new prescribed boundary spectrum assigned to a service provider is a pair of 8 MHz and 5 MHz for GSM and CDMA technologies for all service areas other than in Delhi and Mumbai where he will be 10MHz and 6.25 MHz paired spectrum.

Apex decision making body of Dot, Telecom Commission also approved a National Telecom Policy 2012 on Wednesday. This will now send a Dot to the Cabinet for its approval.

Telecom Commission Chairman R Chandrasekhar told PTI that the NTP 2012 sent to the Cabinet by the end of this month and expected to get Cabinet approval of April.

Based on the new prescribed limit for spectrum allocation, and as shown in this consultation paper by Trai, 1800 MHz spectrum band has a spectrum available that can accommodate a new player, as well as in Rajasthan which will have only 3.2 MHz spectrum available after it is vacated telecommunications operators whose license has been suspended by the apex court.

However, Trai had earlier recommended that upon renewal of the license, spectrum held by a licensee in the 900 MHz band will be replaced by a requirement of an equal amount of spectrum in 1800 MHz. The 900 MHz is able to provide 3G services more effectively compared to the spectrum in 1900 MHz band.

In the consultation paper was published, Trai put forward various models that can be used for auction. Similarly, to determine a minimum value for spectrum to start an auction, Trai is not specifically stated price, but asked for a model that should be used to determine the base price.

Most of the Telecom operators whose license has been suspended by the Supreme Court, they were asked to fix it at around Rs 1,658 crore which is equivalent to the license fee that charged for allocation of pan-India license to new telecom players after 2001.

Trai has given time till March 21 for written comments, and March 28 for a counter-comments on this consultation paper.

Business

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Trai issues consultation paper on spectrum auction

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