Telcos seek fresh pre-bid conference for 3G

Ahead of spectrum auction on February 25, telecom operators, including Vodafone, Idea and Airtel, today demanded a fresh pre-bid conference on 3G spectrum details of which are not available at present.
"Since there will be quite tight timeline when DoT will notify quantum of spectrum that will be auctioned and other modalities related to it, may be you (DoT) could consider another pre-bid conference for 2100 Mhz (3G) band," an Idea Cellular representative said at pre-bid conference called by DoT.
The DoT has announced auction of four sets of spectrum bands -- 900 Mhz and 1800 Mhz (being used for 2G), 800 Mhz band (CDMA) and 2100 Mhz band (3G). It, has, however, not provided details of 3G spectrum.

The demand to conduct pre-bid conference was supported by most of the telecom operators, including Airtel, Vodafone and Aircel.
Operators also raised the issue of increase in earnest money deposit for participating in auction.
"In some circles EMD is more than 33 per cent upfront payment provision as mentioned in Notice Inviting Application. It should be just around 2-3 per cent but in some services it is as high as 55 per cent which would deter participating and government's one of the objective of revenue maximisation," a Reliance Communication representative said.

Aircel, Uninor and Tata Teleservices representative raised issue of lock-in period of three years saying that it is getting rolled over from one auction to other.

Lock-in period clause binds promoters having share of more than 10 per cent from selling their stake in the company.
"Lock-in period should be applicable on new entrants but it is getting rolled over for someone who has already purchased spectrum in 2012 and subsequent auction," an Uninor representative said.