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The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Thursday recommended a 15 per cent rise in reserve price of 800-MHz spectrum for auction at Rs 3,104 crore. It had, in February, suggested the price at Rs 2,685 crore.
The new reserve price, however, is 72 per cent higher than the Rs 1,800 crore rate in 2013 auction.
In a reply to the department of telecommunications (DoT), Trai said: “In the light of current data trends and other relevant factors, since the valuation exercise was carried out in February 2014, the authority has decided to carry out fresh valuation of the spectrum in 800-MHz band.”
The Trai reply came as DoT had sent back the recommendations to the regulator for reconsideration of some aspects. Trai said regarding DoT’s request for reviewing price, it is of the view “that since the reserve prices have been referred for reconsideration, it is obliged to take into account developments subsequent to its earlier recommendations of February 2014 for the 800-MHz band.”
“...In line with the viewpoint taken in October 2014 recommendations on valuation and reserve price of 1800-MHz spectrum, the valuation of 800MHz spectrum has been recalculated,” Trai stated.
Trai has also asked DoT that it should take back from state-run Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) its entire spectrum holding in the 800-MHz band. The regulator said Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited should be allowed to retain only one CDMA carrier in all the licence service areas, except in Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and the Northeast LSAs, where it can retain both the carriers, according to a statement.
“The authority observed that Telecom Service Providers in a number of countries in the Americas, Australia and Asia had deployed High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) technology in this band. In the last few years, a few deployments of LTE2 and even LTE-Advanced have come up in this band,” Trai said. The entire available spectrum with DoT in the 800-MHz band should be put to auction, it added.
