Telecom companies whose licences were quashed by the Supreme Court will be required to pay a minimum earnest money deposit (EMD) of Rs 1,332 crore to bid for pan-Indian spectrum in the auction that starts on November 12. The auction guidelines issued by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in the notice inviting applications say telecom companies whose licences had been cancelled would be treated as new players in the bidding.
Any new company looking to start mobile phone services business will have to win at least two blocks of spectrum in the 800-MHz band that is used for CDMA services.
For each pan-Indian level block in 800 MHz, DoT has asked for earnest money deposit of Rs 684 crore.
However, there is no spectrum available in the Rajasthan circle, which reduces pan-India earnest money deposit amount by Rs 18 crore to Rs 666 crore .
In this spectrum band, a new player can bid for a minimum of two blocks (earnest money deposit is Rs 1,332 crore for two blocks) and existing service providers can bid only for one block of spectrum.
In case of 1,800 Mhz spectrum, telecom companies will have to provide earnet money deposit of of Rs 530 crore for each block.
The guidelines say new players will have to bid for four blocks of 1,800 Mhz spectrum to start services, while existing players will be allowed to bid a maximum of two blocks.
A new firm will have to provide a Rs 2,120 crore earnest money for four blocks of pan-India spectrum and existing players will be need to provide minimum of Rs 530 crore.
The auction guidelines have made it official that foreign firms can bid for spectrum on their own and obtain telecom licences on winning spectrum.
DoT has also decided to provide additional three blocks of spectrum in all telecom service areas, except Delhi and Mumbai, in 1,800 Mhz band for auction if required.
For 800 Mhz band, the government has no spectrum block available for auction in Rajasthan service area. Only two blocks are available in Andhra Pradesh and Punjab service area.
In Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Maharashtra, the government will auction only three blocks in 800 Mhz band. In rest of the services areas, four blocks in this band will be auctioned.
